St. Paul’s mayor responded Wednesday to the mother of a man fatally shot by St. Paul officers last week, saying he would support any decision by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension to share video and audio evidence with her, but stressing he “cannot interfere with the investigation.”

Also on Wednesday, people who said they were looking for answers about what happened to Cordale Handy protested before the St. Paul City Council. The council halted its regular meeting and three of the six council members present left the room to continue a business awards program that had already started.

Handy’s mother, Kim Handy, had sent a letter to Mayor Chris Coleman on Tuesday, asking him to arrange for her and family to privately view videos of the incident.

“As you state, it is critically important that there is a full, independent and transparent investigation of your son’s death,” Coleman wrote in reply.

Last year, St. Paul adopted a policy of asking outside law enforcement agencies to investigate fatal officer-involved shootings, which the department described as an effort to be more transparent and in response to community concerns. The BCA is investigating the Handy case.

“I am unable to arrange for you to review the evidence unless the BCA deems it appropriate,” Coleman continued in his letter to Kim Handy.

A Minnesota Department of Public Safety spokesman said Tuesday that “any evidence collected for this investigation is currently confidential under Minnesota law and, as such, cannot be shared at this time.” He said the BCA could arrange for Handy’s family to view video when the investigation is complete, before it is released publicly.

Protesters briefly took over the scheduled city council meeting Wednesday afternoon. Council Members Russ Stark, Dai Thao and Jane Prince explained that they had no authority in the state-led investigation, but protesters frequently shouted them down and said the council could slash the police budget.

Stark, the council president, promised the protesters he would convene a community discussion within the next few weeks.

"Who is the 3rd cop? We want to know! We want to have these conversations and we want u to have this conversations!" pic.twitter.com/9oxkSDolRw — FredMelo, Reporter (@FrederickMelo) March 22, 2017

"We have a duty to fight for our freedom! We have nothing to lose but our chains!" pic.twitter.com/87zhiByWYm — FredMelo, Reporter (@FrederickMelo) March 22, 2017

"They're going to release the video and (I know) it's going to be abridged." pic.twitter.com/nyrdY1GyEJ — FredMelo, Reporter (@FrederickMelo) March 22, 2017

“I would just like for the police to be held accountable,” said James Franklin, of Insure the Police St. Paul, in an interview afterward. “Since we’re paying them, I believe the people who are paying the employees are the boss. We appreciate them for putting their lives on the line on a day-to-day basis, but we need them to hold themselves accountable.”

Shouting from the audience, Deirdre Darovic of St. Paul repeatedly called upon Coleman, who was not in the room, to make himself more publicly available to the youth involved in the “Justice Occupation for Philando” protest movement, which formed after the St. Anthony police shooting of Philando Castile in July.

“He’s been a hard person to get in a room unless it’s a very controlled entrance,” Darovic said. “We tried all summer — could not find Chris Coleman. It’s like ‘Where’s Waldo?'”

The mayor expressed his condolences to Kim Handy in the letter.

“Regardless of the circumstances, there can be no greater pain than that of a parent who must bury their child,” he wrote. “As a father, my heart goes out to you and your family.”

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Mural workshop, events at Victoria Theater Arts Center in St. Paul’s Frogtown this weekend and next St. Paul police officers responded to a report of a “domestic situation involving physical violence” in Dayton’s Bluff about 2:20 a.m. March 15 in the 700 block of East Sixth Street.

Officers Mikko Norman and Nathaniel Younce encountered Handy nearby, at East Seventh and Sinnen streets. He was allegedly armed.

“After repeated commands to drop the gun, Handy pointed the weapon twice at officers,” according to a DPS statement. Norman and Younce fired their guns, and Handy was shot multiple times.

Andrew Stroth, Kim Handy’s attorney, has said they have accounts from eyewitnesses that are “contradictory to the information that was included in the BCA’s press release.” He also said it’s his understanding that officers seized cellphones from two eyewitnesses who were taking videos of the incident.

“If Mayor Coleman is committed to an independent and transparent investigation, Cordale’s mother should have the right to see the audio and video from the two personal phones that were seized,” Stroth said Wednesday. “Sharing this information doesn’t impede the investigation.”

DPS has said they have video from a nearby building that shows Handy carrying a handgun, but the full incident was out of the camera’s view.