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Mariah Samuels was described by her family as a dedicated mother to two beautiful sons, a dog groomer who loved animals and someone passionate about living life to her fullest. That all ended abruptly on Sept. 14, when Samuels’ ex-boyfriend allegedly shot her 10 times outside her family home in north Minneapolis, killing her.
Samuels had been on the phone just that morning with 911 to inform them that her ex-boyfriend David Wright, who has since been charged in her killing, had violated a no-contact order. A Minnesota Star Tribune investigation into the killing published Thursday morning found that Minneapolis police didn’t take enough steps to ensure Samuels’ safety after she’d reported being pistol-whipped by Wright a month before and filing an order for protection.
The newspaper’s report has roiled the city in an already contentious election year — and exposed gaps in the police department’s response to domestic violence. City and county leaders have been frustrated by what they see as a lack of communication over Samuels’ killing and other violence against people of color in the city from Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey’s administration and the police department he oversees.
Samuels’ sister Simone Hunter said Samuels took the time to provide evidence and file reports with police, hoping that she and her family would be protected. Hunter said her sister deserved justice, peace and safety, but was left to fend on her own by the police.
“You know what the police officer said who took my sister’s case? Mariah didn’t seem like she was afraid enough. Her case didn’t have enough severity,” Hunter said. “In Minneapolis you can be pistol-whipped and it’s not severe enough for you.”
Hunter and others spoke shortly before attending a court hearing in the murder case against Wright.
Later that afternoon, Hennepin County Board Chair Irene Fernando held a press conference with domestic violence advocates in downtown Minneapolis. She outlined her attempts to get information about the police department’s domestic violence investigators, which included two in-person meetings with Frey that she said included Community Safety Commissioner Todd Barnette and City Operations Officer Margaret Anderson Kelliher. Frey’s office confirmed that the two meetings occurred and that they had offered to set up more meetings for Fernando.
Fernando said she wasn’t able to get data about how many investigators were working in the city’s domestic violence unit.
"I do not have confidence that the City of Minneapolis under the current leadership structure is able and capable and potentially even willing to seek the justice and reforms that prevent similar killings in the future," she said.
Fernando said it’s shocking that Minneapolis police didn’t assign an investigator to Samuels’ case after the initial assault on Aug. 21 or after she filed an order for protection. Samuels’ case has been compared to that of Allison Lussier, an Indigenous woman who was found dead in her apartment in 2024, and Davis Moturi, a Black man who was shot by a neighbor after months of harassment. Both Moturi and Lussier had reported their harassers to police — their supporters say their concerns were ignored by the department.
Chief: Department will review Samuels’ case as it implements policy changes
The Star Tribune reporting found substantial inconsistencies between the reports filed by the officer who responded to Samuels’ assault and her family’s experiences, including whether Samuels wanted Wright to be prosecuted and whether she felt safe.
A spokesperson for Frey, who is in charge of Minneapolis police under the city’s charter, said in a statement that Samuels’ death is a tragedy and that Minneapolis police could have done better, but that the mayor is glad that the police chief has ordered a review of the case and is continuing to implement changes to how the department handles domestic violence cases.
“A critical part of that means we need more police officers, including investigators. Inadequate staffing of police and investigators is a disservice to victims, and it's why I've been clear that we need to hire more,” according to Frey’s spokesperson.
Minneapolis Chief Brian O’Hara said on Thursday evening that his department would do everything it could to prevent another tragic event like Samuels’ killing. But he said the “ugly truth” was that Minneapolis police are still understaffed after hundreds of officers left the department following George Floyd’s killing by a Minneapolis officer in 2020.
“The Minneapolis police must triage a response to and investigations of instances of violence in our community,” O’Hara said. “That’s true for domestic violence, but it’s also true for homicides, for shootings, for assaults, robberies and sexual crimes as well — this is not an excuse but it is a reality. We simply do not have the staffing levels we once did.”
O’Hara said there were just five sworn investigators in the city’s domestic violence unit, with one more that’s just been added. In 2019, O’Hara said, there were 12 investigators. Already this year, Minneapolis police have responded to about 6,000 domestic violence calls. On an annual basis, O’Hara said police report about 900 cases of domestic violence aggravated assault.
If staffing was an issue, Fernando asked, why did Frey not use his authority over the department to prioritize domestic violence victims and survivors?
Fernando’s criticism comes as Frey faces strong opposition from challengers in next week’s mayoral election.
A Frey campaign spokesperson pointed out in an email to MPR News that Fernando has endorsed DeWayne Davis, one of Frey’s challengers. But Fernando said she couldn’t delay speaking up about domestic violence and murder.
“I am not thinking about next week electorally,” Fernando said. “Electoral survivability is not my concern. The survivability of women, victims, their children and communities is of my concern.”
Council members call for transparency from the mayor’s administration
Members of the Minneapolis City Council have also criticized the mayor saying his administration is withholding information about high-profile policing incidents from the public and the council, and they recently voted to support Samuels’ family in investigating her killing or the discrimination she encountered.
The police chief acknowledged that the department has often experienced a backlog in assigning investigators to “gone on arrival” domestic violence calls, with about 100 cases sometimes waiting to be assigned. O’Hara is ordering a “thorough review” of the department’s actions in this case. Part of that internal review, he said, could be looking at whether the officer who responded to Samuels’ initial assault followed procedure.
O’Hara said the department must do everything in its power to “strengthen our response, protect victims and try to prevent the next tragedy.”
In July, before Samuels’ killing, the department launched a new domestic violence risk assessment tool in its 4th Precinct, covering north Minneapolis, which will be rolled out throughout the city. O’Hara said this process helped connect Samuels to a police community navigator who helped her develop a safety plan and file an order for protection.
In response to questions about Samuels’ killing, O’Hara vowed this week to retrain all city officers in domestic violence protocols and procedures by the end of the year. All officers are also now required to ask domestic violence victims if they feel safe and then to take action to assist them. He also said they’re working with partners to form a domestic violence response team that includes investigators, advocates and analysts to help assess which cases need to be prioritized.
Artika Roller, executive director of Cornerstone Advocacy Services, said it’s clear that the people who directly harmed Samuels needed to be held accountable, but that it shouldn’t stop there.
“We also must hold our systems and leaders that fail to act accountable,” Roller said, “our leaders who hold the authority, and the information and the opportunity to intervene.”
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