ROCHESTER, MINNESOTA: THE STRUGGLE OVER A POLICE GUN THAT ENDED IN FIVE SHOTS

The Moment Everything Changed

At first, there was no gunshot.

There was no shouting from outside.

No chase through the streets.

No armed suspect running from police.

Instead, officers were standing inside an apartment in Rochester, Minnesota, trying to convince a man to leave.

For more than an hour, police and a crisis-response social worker had been dealing with a difficult situation involving a man officers believed was experiencing a mental-health crisis.

His name was Cleavon White.

He was 47 years old.

A woman and several children were also inside the apartment.

The officers were trying to persuade White to accept a 72-hour emergency mental-health hold and go to the hospital.

He did not want to go.

The conversation continued.

Officers talked.

White questioned them.

They tried to persuade him.

And then, suddenly, the conversation became a physical struggle.

That was the moment the entire situation changed.

Because during the struggle, according to police and the subsequently released body-camera footage, White reached for an officer's firearm.

The weapon was still in its holster.

Then the gun fired.

One shot.

Inside the apartment.

An officer immediately shouted a warning.

"He's grabbing my gun."

Seconds later, five more shots rang out.

By the time the gunfire stopped, Cleavon White was critically wounded.

He would later die at a hospital.

No police officer was shot.

But a question remained:

How did a mental-health call that had lasted more than an hour suddenly turn into a fatal struggle over a police firearm?

The body-camera footage released later would provide a disturbing look at those final seconds.

And the closer the footage is examined, the more important every moment before the gunfire becomes.

PART ONE: THE CALL THAT BROUGHT POLICE TO ASHLAND DRIVE

It was the evening of March 11, 2026.

Around 9:30 p.m., Rochester police officers were dispatched to an apartment building in the 1900 block of Ashland Drive Northwest.

The call was described as domestic-related.

Police were told that a man was experiencing what authorities characterized as a mental-health crisis.

Officers did not arrive alone.

A social worker from Rochester's Crisis Response Team was also involved in the response. Authorities later said officers and the crisis team spent significant time attempting to deal with the situation before deciding that White should be placed on a 72-hour emergency hold.

That detail is important.

This was not a situation where officers arrived and immediately began wrestling with White.

According to later reporting based on the released body-camera footage, officers had already been inside the apartment for more than an hour before the final confrontation.

The goal, initially, was not to shoot anyone.

The goal was to get White to the hospital.

The officers were attempting to persuade him to cooperate.

But White refused.

And as the minutes passed, the tension inside the apartment continued.

PART TWO: THREE OFFICERS, ONE APARTMENT, AND A MAN WHO DID NOT WANT TO LEAVE

The body-camera footage released by the Rochester Police Department gives viewers a glimpse into those final minutes.

White can be seen standing in a corner of the kitchen.

He is wearing a loose gray shirt.

His hands are initially held together in front of him.

Three police officers are nearby.

The atmosphere is tense, but there is not yet a physical fight.

One of the officers, later identified as Josiah Duit, speaks to White.

Duit attempts to explain what is happening.

White asks questions about the medical hold.

He appears to be trying to understand what police are telling him.

The conversation goes back and forth.

White does not agree with the officers.

The officers continue trying to convince him.

Then another officer tells him that he has no option but to come with them.

The message becomes more direct.

Police tell White that if he does not leave voluntarily, they will have to physically take him into custody.

One officer tells him that they are trying to give him as many options as possible.

Duit tells him they are essentially begging him to walk out so they do not have to drag him out.

But White remains where he is.

And then his tone changes.

PART THREE: "CAN Y'ALL JUST PLEASE BACK UP OFF OF ME?"

The body-camera recording captures White asking the officers to back away.

He says he is not fighting them.

He tells them that they are fighting him.

The distinction is important because the confrontation has not yet become the violent struggle seen later in the video.

There is still a possibility of compliance.

The officers continue talking.

Duit tells White to take a deep breath.

White does.

Another officer suggests taking another breath and then walking out.

For a moment, it appears the conversation might continue.

But then White begins shouting.

The tension rises.

The officers move closer.

White raises his hands.

And then Duit reaches toward White's left wrist.

That movement begins the final sequence.

Within seconds, the conversation becomes a physical struggle.

PART FOUR: THE STRUGGLE BEGINS

At approximately 10:37 p.m., the situation changes completely.

Duit grabs White's left wrist and forearm.

Another officer moves toward White's other side.

The third officer moves closer and assists.

The body-camera footage shows White resisting.

The officers are attempting to control his arms.

White fights against them.

The third officer radios that a fight is in progress.

The struggle moves around the kitchen.

One officer attempts to control White's upper body.

Another works to control his arms.

The third officer moves in to assist.

White kicks as he loses balance.

The scene becomes chaotic.

And then something appears in the footage that will become the central fact of the investigation.

White's left hand reaches toward an officer's firearm.

PART FIVE: THE GUN

At first, the firearm appears to remain down near the officer's side.

The weapon is still associated with the officer's holster.

White's hand moves onto it.

The struggle continues.

Then the gun shifts.

The angle changes.

The firearm is still pressed against the officer's side, but White appears to have gained control of the weapon.

And then—

A shot is fired.

The sound is immediate.

The bullet strikes the area near the kitchen cabinets.

A projectile is later recovered from the cabinet kickboard, according to details contained in an unsealed search warrant.

For the officers in the room, there is no time to stop and understand what just happened.

The gun has fired.

Someone has gained control of a police firearm.

And suddenly the danger is no longer theoretical.

It is happening inside the apartment.

PART SIX: "HE'S GRABBING MY GUN"

Immediately after the first shot, an officer shouts the warning that would become one of the defining moments of the body-camera video:

"He's grabbing my gun."

The words come during the struggle.

The officers now know that White has his hands on a firearm.

The camera moves.

The situation becomes harder to see clearly.

Then five shots are heard in rapid succession.

The gunfire lasts only seconds.

But those seconds end the struggle.

White is struck.

The officers continue controlling his body.

A woman and children can be heard screaming in the background.

That sound is one of the most disturbing parts of the recording.

Because this was not an empty apartment.

There were other people inside.

Children were present.

They were close enough to hear the gunfire.

And what had started as a prolonged attempt to resolve a mental-health crisis had suddenly become a deadly police shooting inside their home.

PART SEVEN: THE QUESTION AFTER THE GUNFIRE

After the five shots, the officers do not simply walk away.

They continue trying to control White.

One officer tells the others to get his hands.

White is told to put his hands up.

Then comes another question:

"Where's the gun?"

The answer is immediate.

The firearm is still in the officer's holster.

That detail became particularly important.

According to Rochester Police Chief Jim Franklin, the weapon that White grabbed remained in its holster during the struggle.

The first shot had been fired from the weapon while it was still associated with the officer's holster.

The body-camera footage appears to show the same sequence.

White had grabbed the weapon.

The weapon fired.

Then Officer Duit fired five rounds.

The entire sequence happened in seconds.

PART EIGHT: THE FIVE SHOTS

Officer Josiah Duit fired the five shots that struck White.

The Rochester Police Department later identified Duit as the officer who fired his department-issued weapon.

Duit had approximately three years of law-enforcement experience and was placed on critical-incident leave following the shooting.

At that moment, however, there was no time to think about the investigation that would come later.

There was only the immediate threat.

The firearm had discharged.

The officers were still fighting to control White.

And Duit fired.

The body-camera footage does not turn the situation into a simple story.

It shows something much more complicated.

Officers had spent a long time trying to convince White to cooperate.

White repeatedly resisted.

The officers eventually moved to physically take him into custody.

A struggle followed.

White reached for the firearm.

The gun fired.

And Duit responded with five shots.

That sequence is now part of the evidence being examined by state investigators.

PART NINE: THE CHILDREN IN THE NEXT ROOM

One of the most haunting details reported after the shooting came not from police, but from White's family.

White's wife, Samantha Marbury, later told the Minnesota Star Tribune that she gathered her five children into another room while their father struggled with police.

She was not in the middle of the physical struggle.

She was listening.

And so were the children.

They could hear what was happening.

Then came the gunshots.

For the family, this was not simply an incident captured on body camera.

It was happening inside their home.

The location that should have been familiar and private had suddenly become a crime scene.

Marbury later said she wanted to see the video before accepting the official account of what had happened.

That perspective is important because it demonstrates why investigations involving police use of deadly force require more than a single statement.

There are different people experiencing the same event from different positions.

Officers saw one thing.

White's family experienced another.

The camera captured another part of it.

And investigators must eventually put all of those pieces together.

PART TEN: THE APARTMENT AFTER THE SHOOTING

Once the shooting ended, the officers immediately had another responsibility.

White needed medical attention.

Police and emergency responders provided life-saving measures.

White was transported to a hospital.

Despite those efforts, he was pronounced dead.

The apartment then became an active investigative scene.

The physical evidence would matter.

The firearms would matter.

The spent ammunition would matter.

The location of the projectile would matter.

And, perhaps most importantly, the body-camera recordings would matter.

The shooting had been partially captured on camera.

That meant investigators could examine the final seconds frame by frame.

The public would eventually be able to see part of that same sequence.

But the release did not happen immediately.

PART ELEVEN: THE SEARCH WARRANT REVEALS MORE

Several days after the shooting, unsealed search warrants provided additional information about what investigators found inside the apartment.

According to KTTC's reporting, investigators located four firearms:

• A 9mm Sig Sauer pistol.

Investigators also found multiple 9mm cartridge cases on the kitchen floor.

A fired projectile was recovered from the kitchen cabinet kickboard.

A phone was located on the kitchen counter.

Investigators also documented a bloodstain on the kitchen floor, although the reporting noted that it was not immediately clear whose blood it was.

These details did not by themselves answer every question.

But they gave investigators physical evidence to compare against the body-camera footage and witness accounts.

The fired projectile was particularly significant because it corresponded with the first gunshot heard during the struggle.

The camera showed the gun being grabbed.

A shot was heard.

And investigators recovered evidence consistent with a round striking the kitchen area.

PART TWELVE: MORE THAN AN HOUR BEFORE THE FATAL SECONDS

Perhaps the biggest detail to understand is the timeline.

The body-camera footage released by police begins shortly before the shooting.

But officers had already been at the apartment for more than an hour.

The released segment starts at approximately 10:36 p.m.

The fatal shots occur around 10:37 p.m.

That means the public sees only the final minutes of a much longer encounter.

This is important when watching the footage.

The video does not begin with the arrival of police.

It begins after a significant amount of conversation and attempted de-escalation had already taken place.

By the time the camera begins recording the final sequence, the officers and crisis-response personnel had already been working to persuade White to leave.

That background changes how the final three minutes should be understood.

The struggle did not happen immediately.

It happened after a prolonged attempt to resolve the situation without force.

PART THIRTEEN: THE BODY CAMERA BECOMES THE WITNESS

On March 25, Rochester police released body-camera footage from the incident.

The department warned that the footage was age-restricted because of its graphic nature.

At the end of the video, RPD slowed portions of the footage to highlight what it considered relevant details.

The release changed the public understanding of the incident.

Before the video was released, the basic description was simple:

Police responded to a mental-health crisis.

The man resisted.

He grabbed an officer's gun.

The gun fired.

Another officer shot him.

But the footage provides something a written statement cannot.

It shows the interaction.

It shows the distance between the officers and White.

It shows the attempts to persuade him.

It shows his resistance.

It shows the physical struggle.

And it captures the exact moment when the firearm becomes part of the struggle.

The footage does not answer every question.

But it gives investigators and the public another piece of the puzzle.

PART FOURTEEN: THE MOMENT THE OFFICERS LOST CONTROL OF THE SITUATION

Police officers train to maintain control during arrests.

But a physical struggle can change rapidly.

In this case, White's resistance created a situation in which the officers were attempting to control his arms and body while also preventing him from escaping.

Then his hand reached the firearm.

The weapon was not supposed to be part of the struggle.

But suddenly it was.

The first shot demonstrated the danger immediately.

The gun had fired while officers were still physically engaged with White.

At that point, the officers could not simply continue trying to restrain him in the same manner.

The threat had escalated.

The firearm had discharged.

The officers had to respond.

That is when Duit fired the five shots.

And within seconds, the confrontation was over.

PART FIFTEEN: WHAT WE KNOW — AND WHAT REMAINS UNDER INVESTIGATION

The most important facts are now documented.

Cleavon White was 47.

The incident happened March 11, 2026, at an apartment in the 1900 block of Ashland Drive Northwest.

Police and a crisis-response social worker were called because of a reported mental-health crisis.

Authorities decided White should be placed on a 72-hour emergency hold.

White resisted being taken into custody.

A physical struggle followed.

Police say White grabbed an officer's firearm.

The firearm discharged.

Officer Josiah Duit fired five shots.

White was taken to the hospital and died.

No officers were injured.

The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension is investigating.

And the BCA is expected to present its findings to the Olmsted County Attorney's Office for review.

Those facts form the basic framework.

But the investigation is important because the final legal conclusions do not come from a body-camera video alone.

The BCA must examine the evidence.

The county attorney's office must review the findings.

And questions about the conduct of everyone involved must be evaluated through the investigative process.

PART SIXTEEN: THE FAMILY'S SIDE OF THE STORY

There is another side that deserves attention.

White's family was present.

His wife and children were inside the apartment.

They heard the confrontation.

They heard the gunfire.

And afterward, they were left with the consequences.

Marbury described White's mental-health struggles to the Star Tribune and said he had been hospitalized several months earlier during another psychotic episode.

Those statements provide context, but they should not be treated as a complete explanation for everything that happened that night.

The exact reasons for White's behavior remain a matter for investigators and medical professionals with access to the relevant records.

What is certain is that his family was there.

And five children were close enough to hear their father struggling with police.

The emotional impact of that cannot be captured by a timestamp on a body camera.

PART SEVENTEEN: THE QUESTION OF DE-ESCALATION

Whenever a police response to a mental-health crisis ends in a fatal shooting, another question naturally emerges:

Could the situation have ended differently?

That is a question investigators, officials, families, and the public may ask.

In this case, the documented footage shows that officers did attempt to persuade White to cooperate.

They repeatedly asked him to leave.

They discussed the medical hold.

They asked him to take a breath.

They told him they wanted him to walk out voluntarily.

And they warned him that physical force would be used if he refused.

Those facts are visible in the released footage and described in reporting based on it.

But the eventual decision to use force led directly into a physical struggle.

And that struggle led to the firearm being grabbed.

The BCA investigation is therefore significant.

It provides an independent review of the deadly use of force and the circumstances surrounding it.

PART EIGHTEEN: THE SECOND THAT NO ONE COULD TAKE BACK

There is one moment in the footage that changes everything.

White's hand reaches toward the officer's gun.

The weapon moves.

A shot fires.

The officer shouts.

And then five shots follow.

That is the moment when the entire situation becomes irreversible.

Before the first gunshot, there was still a possibility that the situation could end without anyone being killed.

After the first gunshot, that possibility had disappeared.

The firearm had discharged.

The officers knew the weapon was in the struggle.

And the next few seconds became a fight for control.

Five shots later, White was down.

The officers were alive.

The children were still inside the apartment.

And the sound of gunfire had replaced more than an hour of conversation.

PART NINETEEN: WHY THE FOOTAGE IS SO DIFFICULT TO WATCH

The body-camera video is not simply dramatic because of the gunfire.

It is disturbing because of what happens immediately before it.

There is hesitation.

There is conversation.

There are attempts to persuade.

There is confusion.

There are pleas.

Then suddenly there is physical force.

And finally there is a gunshot.

The transition is incredibly fast.

One moment White is standing in the kitchen talking.

The next, several officers are struggling to control him.

Then his hand reaches for the weapon.

The firearm fires.

And the officers respond.

That rapid transformation is one reason body-camera footage can be so powerful.

A written report can summarize the event in several paragraphs.

The video compresses the same story into seconds.

PART TWENTY: THE OFFICERS AFTERWARD

Officer Josiah Duit was placed on critical-incident leave after the shooting.

That is part of the process following a fatal officer-involved shooting.

The other officers present were also identified during the investigation.

The BCA identified Levi Wilkin and Emily Dunford as the other Rochester officers at the scene. All three officers were placed on paid crisis leave pending the investigation.

The body-camera footage from Dunford became particularly important because it captured the struggle from another angle.

That recording helps establish what happened immediately before and after the first shot.

Investigators can compare the different camera perspectives.

They can compare those recordings with physical evidence.

They can compare the evidence with witness statements.

And they can reconstruct the sequence second by second.

That process may be slow.

But it matters.

PART TWENTY-ONE: THE CITY SEES THE VIDEO

When Rochester Police released the footage, the department's chief called the incident deeply tragic.

The statement did not attempt to turn the shooting into a celebration.

It acknowledged that the event affected everyone involved.

That is perhaps the most accurate description of what happened.

There was a man experiencing a crisis.

There were family members inside the home.

There were police officers attempting to take him into custody.

There was a crisis-response worker involved.

There was a firearm.

There was a single gunshot from that firearm.

Then there were five shots from a police officer.

And finally there was a death.

There are no simple winners in a situation like that.

There are only people left to deal with what happened.

PART TWENTY-TWO: THE INVESTIGATION CONTINUES

The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension remains responsible for investigating the shooting.

The BCA's role is particularly important because the agency is separate from the Rochester Police Department.

Once its investigation is complete, the findings will go to the Olmsted County Attorney's Office for review.

That means the story is not necessarily finished.

The body-camera video has been released.

The search-warrant information has become public.

The names of the officers have been identified.

The identity of the man who died is known.

But the formal investigative process continues.

That process will determine how the evidence is evaluated by authorities.

For now, the released footage provides the public with an unusually detailed look at the final minutes.

PART TWENTY-THREE: FROM A QUIET CONVERSATION TO FIVE GUNSHOTS

Perhaps the most striking thing about the Rochester incident is how ordinary the beginning of the final video looks.

A man stands in a kitchen.

Police officers are nearby.

They talk.

They ask questions.

They ask him to breathe.

They ask him to walk out.

He refuses.

Then everything changes.

The officers reach for him.

He resists.

A fight begins.

His hand reaches toward a police firearm.

The gun fires.

Someone screams that he is grabbing the gun.

Five shots follow.

And a few seconds later, the kitchen is silent.

That sequence is why the footage demands attention.

Not because it is sensational.

But because it shows how quickly circumstances can move from conversation to violence.

PART TWENTY-FOUR: THE LAST THING THE CAMERA SHOWS

After the shooting, one of the officers asks where the gun is.

Another officer responds that it is still in the holster.

The officers then continue controlling White.

The video eventually ends.

The camera does not show the entire medical response.

It does not show everything that happened afterward.

But by then, the central event has already occurred.

The struggle is over.

White is down.

The firearm has been secured.

And the investigation has begun.

The footage ends.

The questions do not.

CONCLUSION: THE SECONDS THAT CHANGED EVERYTHING

The story of Cleavon White's death in Rochester did not begin with a gunshot.

It began with a call for help.

It began with a man authorities believed was experiencing a mental-health crisis.

It began with officers and a crisis-response social worker arriving at an apartment.

It continued for more than an hour.

There were conversations.

There were attempts to persuade White to go to the hospital.

There were requests for him to cooperate.

There were warnings that officers would eventually have to use force.

And then the final attempt to take him into custody began.

White resisted.

The officers struggled with him.

His hand reached for an officer's firearm.

The weapon fired.

The officer shouted that White was grabbing the gun.

And Officer Josiah Duit fired five shots.

White was taken to the hospital.

He died.

No officer was shot.

The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension began investigating the incident.

But perhaps the most haunting part of the entire story is how little time passed between the first shot and the final five.

The first gunshot changed everything.

Before it, officers were trying to gain control of a difficult situation.

After it, they were confronting a firearm that had just discharged during a physical struggle.

There was no opportunity to rewind.

No opportunity to see what would happen if everyone simply started again.

The decisions made in those few seconds would determine the rest of the night.

And they would leave a family grieving, officers facing an investigation, and an entire community trying to understand how a call involving a mental-health crisis ended in a fatal police shooting.

The body-camera footage gives us a window into those final moments.

But it does not erase the uncertainty surrounding everything that happened before them.

It does not replace the investigation.

And it does not tell us what every person in that apartment was thinking.

What it does provide is a record.

A record of the conversation.

The resistance.

The struggle.

The firearm.

The first shot.

The warning.

And then the five shots that ended the confrontation.

That is why this footage is so difficult to look away from.

Because the most important moment does not announce itself.

It happens in the middle of a struggle.

And by the time the viewer realizes what is happening, the outcome has already been decided.

WATCH THE FULL BODYCAM VIDEO HERE

The complete body-camera footage is posted below. Watch the video to see the tense conversation, the struggle inside the apartment, the moment the firearm is grabbed, and the seconds that followed.

▶️ WATCH THE FULL VIDEO HERE