A 47 year old Rochester man in the midst of a mental health crisis died after he grabbed a police officer’s holstered gun and pulled the trigger while officers tried to take him into protective custody and his wife and five young children huddled in the next room. Cleavon White was shot and killed on March 11 in his apartment on the 1900 block of Ashland Drive Northwest after Rochester police and a crisis response social worker responded to a domestic call around 9 30 p.m. The social worker had already authorized a 72 hour emergency mental health hold because White was acting erratically and posed a threat to himself and his children. Body camera footage released by authorities on March 25 shows the full sequence in clear detail from the moment officers began negotiating with him in the kitchen.
Officers spent more than an hour talking calmly with White and offering every option they could before the situation turned physical. When they moved in to secure his wrists he resisted and swatted at their arms leading to a brief struggle on the floor. His left hand reached the officer’s firearm still secured in the holster and fired a single round into a lower kitchen cabinet sending visible dust and debris flying across the scene. An officer immediately shouted that White was grabbing the gun and Officer Josiah Duit who has three years of law enforcement experience responded with several rapid shots. White was rolled over given immediate aid and transported to St. Mary’s Hospital where he was pronounced dead. No officers or family members were injured though the wife Samantha Marbury and the children ages one to seven heard everything from the adjacent room and began screaming in the aftermath.
Search warrants executed afterward recovered four additional firearms inside the apartment confirming the level of risk present that night.
Details from executed search warrants show the full inventory recovered post incident. The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension is leading the investigation and will present its findings to the Olmsted County Attorney’s Office for review with no charging decision made yet. Officer Duit has been placed on administrative leave as standard procedure. The full unedited body camera footage which runs about three minutes and begins at roughly 10 36 p.m. stands as the clearest record of what unfolded giving residents and policymakers concrete evidence to weigh when debating improvements to crisis response protocols.
This case illustrates the razor thin margin officers face when mental health calls turn volatile even with a trained social worker present from the start. White’s wife later described him as a deeply spiritual father and provider who had faced recent psychotic episodes requiring hospitalization yet the family had no indication the evening would end in gunfire. Body cameras once again prove their worth by documenting the exact sequence rather than leaving room for speculation yet they also spotlight the broader strain on local systems that often route people in crisis straight to uniformed responders instead of dedicated treatment facilities. Many in the Rochester community have since called for expanded crisis intervention resources so that future encounters do not reach this point of no return.
Officer Duit is also named alongside two colleagues and the city in a separate personal injury lawsuit filed on February 26 by Susan Girdhari a 69 year old Wisconsin woman who alleges constitutional violations during an earlier arrest.
A separate personal injury lawsuit on file details her claims but remains unrelated to the March 11 incident. The presence of that pending civil matter adds another layer of scrutiny to the department’s practices though it does not alter the facts captured on video from the White encounter. Public discussion on social platforms following the footage release reflects a mix of support for the officers split second actions and concern over how mental health emergencies are handled nationwide with many noting the children’s trauma as the most lasting impact.
The tragedy leaves a family grieving and a community reflecting on prevention. White ran a delivery service and was remembered by those close to him as a genuine provider and teacher before his episodes intensified. As the official review continues the released video stands as the clearest record of what unfolded. For now the focus remains on the human cost borne by everyone involved that night in the Ashland Place apartments.
