Relatives of the victim, 28-year-old Abu Kassim Jeilani, say he was mentally ill and didn't speak English.

Six officers were put on routine administrative leave after the shooting Sunday. Investigators said it was too early to tell how much of a role language barriers might have played, and that the severity of Jeilani's mental illness was unclear.

"The guy was mentally ill," said Amal Yusuf, executive director of the Somalian Women's Association. "They could have used Mace."

Mayor R.T Rybak planned to meet with Somali leaders to discuss the shooting.
Police had trailed Jeilani for several blocks, and officers and people who knew the man tried to persuade him to drop the machete and a crowbar he also was carrying.

One witness, Dendell Holley, said Jeilani was holding the machete down as he walked and was not threatening pedestrians. But Jeilani hit a police car with the machete, Holley said.

Officers told Jeilani to put the weapons down. When he didn't obey, they used stun guns to little effect.

"They were telling him to put it down, put it down," Holley said. "It seemed like they just unloaded their guns on him."

Jeilani hadn't seemed to acknowledge anyone around him, said Rahma Ali, who also knew the man and had followed him down the street.

"He just kept saying, `Allahu akbar, Allahu akbar,' over and over again," she said, translating that as "God is great."

Ali said that when police surrounded the man, he raised the machete and repeated the phrase before police shot him.

Police Chief Robert Olson said officers appeared to have followed proper procedure.

"We have a lot of citizens who are very concerned, as right they should be," Olson said. "I would hope they hold back and wait until they find out what the truth is."

Minneapolis officers have undergone training in dealing with the mentally ill since police shootings of three mentally ill people in 1999 and 2000.

Members of the local Somali community called Monday for a full investigation into the shooting and for the removal of Olson and the officers involved.
"They are trained to deal with such situations without causing a death or harm to anybody," said Omal Jamal, executive director of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center.

The Somali Justice Advocacy Center estimates the Somali population in Minnesota numbers at least 25,000 -- mostly refugees who fled the civil war in their east African homeland.

Relatives said Jeilani arrived from Somalia in 1997.

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