Minnesota

The week before, that neighbor — a white man named John Sawchak — had brandished a large knife from his own upstairs window next door, where he often tracked Moturi. Sawchak had screamed racial slurs at Moturi, who is Black, threatening to kill him.

It began about a year ago, soon after Moturi and his wife Caroline moved into the small house on Grand Avenue in the Lyndale neighborhood of Minneapolis. . . .

. . . Too anxious to sleep, Moturi re-lived it, instead. He could still hear Sawchak bang pots and pans, then blast air horns outside their bedroom window. He recalled the feces shoved in his mail slot, felt the terror of Sawchak encroaching on him with a long gardening tool and screaming that the neighborhood had become “ghetto” ever since he moved in.

Moturi imagined he must be living on an island — far from a police station where he could get any help. Except, that wasn’t the case. The 5th Precinct police station was one mile away.

He had been calling the police, pleading with them to do something for a year now, but they said they couldn’t do anything if Sawchak didn’t come outside. One officer suggested the couple move out, which Moturi later learned was what a Black family who previously lived in their house did, facing similar threats and no relief from the police.