STILLWATER, Minn. — Sheriff’s deputies and police officers packed a Stillwater courtroom Wednesday, July 24, in a show of support for a Washington County deputy making his first appearance on a second-degree manslaughter charge.

Brian Krook, 31, of Somerset Township, Wis., pleaded not guilty during the 15-minute hearing.

Police said Krook shot and killed 23-year-old Benjamin Evans shortly after midnight on April 12, 2018, while responding to a 911 call for a suicidal man with a gun in Lake Elmo.

Evans, an emergency medical technician, told officers he wanted to kill himself while “officers made repeated attempts to persuade him to put down the gun,” according to the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, which investigated the shooting. “At one point, Deputy Krook discharged his firearm, striking Evans multiple times.”

A Washington County grand jury last week indicted Krook. The Ramsey County Attorney’s office is handling the case to avoid a conflict of interest.

According to the indictment, Krook caused Evans’ death by “culpable negligence” and “created an unreasonable risk and consciously took the chance of causing death or great bodily harm to another.”

The two-page indictment was made public last week by mistake, which Sherburne County District Judge Mary Yunker acknowledged during the arraignment Wednesday.

“It was a court error, and I sincerely apologize,” she told Krook.

She set bail at $10,000, but said Krook would be freed without bond if he surrendered his passport. Krook’s attorney, Kevin Short, told Yunker that he’s had Krook’s passport since last week.

Krook’s next court hearing likely will take place in about 45 days.

Assistant Ramsey County Attorney Tom Hatch said he gave Short a compact disc “with 664 pdfs on it,” but that he still had other evidence to turn over, including audio and video files.

Krook, who was not booked or arrested, left the courtroom without speaking to the media. The nine-year veteran of the sheriff’s office was briefly placed on paid administrative leave after the shooting, returned to duty and then was placed back on paid administrative leave Monday, according to the sheriff’s office.

Short spoke briefly with reporters on Krook’s behalf and offered condolences to the family and friends of Evans, whom he said died “tragically.”

Short said he has represented numerous police officers “who have had to kill someone in the line of duty, and it is difficult for any person to be put in the position where they have to do that,” Short said. “I am confident that after all the facts are presented at trial, (he) will be completely exonerated.”

Krook has represented the “county and its residents with honor and distinction for almost 10 years,” Short said, adding that his client had received extensive training on the use of deadly force.

“No law enforcement officer ever wants to use deadly force,” Short said. “Deputy Krook was compelled to follow his training and use deadly force … after he and his fellow officers encountered an armed, suicidal, emotionally disturbed man who refused many commands to put his weapon down.”

He said his client had “no choice” but to use deadly force when Evans’ actions placed Krook’s life — and the lives of his fellow officers — in danger.

Rochester attorneys Pete Sandberg and Elham Haddon, who were hired by Evans’ family, said the father of a 3-year-old girl had no criminal record or history of mental illness.

“No short-term or long-standing trouble with mental illness, period,” Sandberg said. “That record reads like the same blank sheet of paper that is his criminal history.”

Family members want answers as to what happened the night Evans was killed, Sandberg said.

“The details are largely left unanswered,” he said. “The frustration they have is the very same they have lived with for close to 18 months. They want some explanation as to why a 23-year-old man is dropped dead on a public sidewalk. They really want to get the question answered: Why is their son dead?”

Sheriff Dan Starry said in a prepared statement that he was “deeply saddened” by Evans’ death. “The loss of life in any call we respond to is never the desired outcome,” he said. “(But) I am proud that we have men and women that are willing to put their lives on the line every day to protect our citizens.”

Grand jury

This is the first time in recent years that the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office has convened a grand jury to decide whether charges are appropriate against an officer involved in an on-duty shooting.

While the use of a grand jury was standard in the past, Ramsey County Attorney John Choi personally filed second-degree manslaughter charges in 2016 against then-St. Anthony police officer Jeronimo Yanez for fatally shooting Philando Castile during a traffic stop in Falcon Heights.

“My conscience tells me it would be wrong for me to ask a grand jury to make this decision when I know in my heart what needs to be done,” Choi said at the time. “In order to achieve justice, we must be willing to do the right thing.”

Choi also said in 2016 that he intended to make charging decisions in such cases moving forward, but he didn’t rule out using a grand jury.

“I won’t say we will never use a grand jury because I think there are times where the use of a grand jury is appropriate and beneficial to the public — for example, for an investigative reason,” Choi said at the time.

Dennis Gerhardstein, a spokesman for the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office, pointed to that remark Wednesday when asked to explain its rationale for using a grand jury in Krook’s case.

“Out of consideration for the Washington County public, (our office) … convened a Washington County Grand Jury … to investigate and review the facts of the officer-involved shooting death of Benjamin Evans,” the statement read.

Gerhardstein declined to elaborate. He said he presumed Choi would someday be willing to speak candidly about his office’s decision.

Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman also moved away from grand juries in fatal incidents involving law enforcement when his office reviewed the 2015 shooting of Jamar Clark in North Minneapolis and declined to charge the two officers involved.

Freeman said then that his office would end its longstanding practice of asking grand juries to do the heavy lifting in such cases, saying that making the charging decision as a prosecutor brought more transparency and accountability to the process.

However, Freeman convened a grand jury to review the fatal shooting of Justice Ruszczyk by Minneapolis police officer Mohamed Noor in 2017. In that case, he only used the grand jury to investigate the case — not to decide whether charges were warranted.

St. Paul Pioneer Press reporter Sarah Horner contributed to this report.