US Supreme Court declines to hear case against state troopers who killed Ricky Cobb

Jeff Day, Star Tribune on Nov 9, 2026

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The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear an appeal over a lawsuit brought by the mother of Ricky Cobb against the Minnesota state troopers involved in his shooting death more than three years ago on Interstate 94.

The decision brings finality to the extensive criminal and civil legal maneuvers against troopers Ryan Londregan and Brett Seide and exonerates them over allegations they broke the law and violated Cobb’s civil rights in the early morning hours of July 31, 2023 in Minneapolis.

In a petition to the Supreme Court, Mario Pacella, an attorney for Cobb’s mother, Nyra Jean Miller-Fields, argued that two lower federal courts had wrongly dismissed her lawsuit by allowing Londregan and Seide to use body-worn camera footage “to evaluate whether a complaint against law enforcement should be dismissed” even though that footage was outside the lawsuit and came before his client was allowed to discover evidence.

Pacella wrote that federal courts had “begun to rely on body-worn cameras and similar technology to evaluate whether a complaint against law enforcement should be dismissed because of qualified immunity.”

He asked the Supreme Court to reject that argument and overturn the lower courts’ rulings.

A message seeking comment on the Supreme Court decision wasn’t immediately returned by Miller-Field’s attorneys.

What transpired the morning Cobb was killed has been widely detailed in federal and state courts.

Seide pulled Cobb over for driving without headlights at 1:52 a.m. and saw that Cobb was wanted in Ramsey County for violating a felony order for protection.

Londregan arrived on the scene 20 minutes later, and Seide told him about the protective order. Seide then received a call from the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office that they wanted Cobb arrested.

The troopers went to Cobb’s car and told him to get out and turn over his keys. Cobb asked if there was a warrant for his arrest. Seide said there was no warrant but it was a lawful arrest. Londregan unlocked and went to open the passenger door. Seide opened the driver-side door. Cobb put his foot on the brake and put the car in drive.

The car moved forward. Seide leaned in and reached for Cobb’s seat belt. Londregan pulled his gun and yelled: “Get out of the car now.” The car moved forward, with Seide still “fully inside.”

Londregan fired twice and the car accelerated. Seide and Londregan were knocked to the ground. They got in their squad cars and stopped Cobb’s vehicle by running into it. They pulled an unresponsive Cobb out and could not resuscitate him.

In her lawsuit, Miller-Fields argued that Londregan and Seide violated her son’s Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment rights through unreasonable seizure and excessive force.

U.S. District Court Judge Nancy Brasel dismissed the lawsuit in 2024 and found that Londregan had acted reasonably when he shot Cobb because he feared for Seide’s safety.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit upheld that ruling and found that video footage “blatantly contradicted” several of the arguments brought by Miller-Fields. The court ruled that after Cobb was pulled over for driving without headlights, that Seide and Londregan acted lawfully in trying to arrest him because he was wanted for violating a felony order for protection in Ramsey County and in shooting him because he “refused commands to exit his car and instead put the car in drive” while Seide was leaning inside.

Attorney Chris Madel, who represented Londregan in all of his court proceedings, told the Minnesota Star Tribune on Monday: “This is the end of the road.”

He said he continues to blame Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty for all of Londregan’s legal troubles and that she and her team should “beg for forgiveness from Ryan and his family.”

The killing of Cobb became a political flashpoint in Minnesota over what constitutes excessive use of force by law enforcement after Moriarty charged Londregan with second-degree murder, first-degree assault and second-degree manslaughter in the killing in 2024.

Law enforcement officers rallied to support Londregan, showing up to his court hearings and to protest the charges. Gov. Tim Walz publicly expressed concerns over Moriarty’s handling of the case. Police organizations asked Walz to have Attorney General Keith Ellison take over the case from Moriarty, who was elected on a campaign promise to hold police accountable for policy violations following the murder of George Floyd.

Moriarty later dismissed the charges against Londregan after spending more than $570,000 to have an outside law firm work on the case. She said that decision was based on expert analysis and Madel’s argument that Londregan feared for Seide’s safety.

Cobb’s family heavily criticized Moriarty’s decision. Fields-Miller described the charges being dropped as being like a “dagger in my back.”

Two months before the charges were dropped, Cobb’s family moved forward with their lawsuit, hiring high-profile civil rights attorneys Bakari Sellers, Harry Daniels and F. Clayton Taylor who had sent a letter to the state of Minnesota seeking $25 million for Cobb’s death.

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