Storlie speaks

David Chanen has a fascinating profile of Charles "Chip" Storlie in today's Star Tribune. For the first time since shooting undercover officer Duy Ngo multiple times with a machine gun five years ago, Storlie gives his account of what happened that dreadful night. The MPD officer tells Chanen that when he realized he had shot a fellow cop, "the blood rushed from my face and I felt like I was wearing lead boots."

Storlie was never charged with a crime. He was also cleared of any wrongdoing by the MPD's internal affairs unit. However, by all accounts the investigation into what happened that night was horribly botched from the outset. The City of Minneapolis settled a civil lawsuit stemming from the incident in November for $4.5 million.

Since the shooting, Storlie has served two tours of duty overseas with the Minnesota National Guard. Most recently he's been working as a security guard for a private military contractor in Iraq. However he intends to eventually return to the MPD.

Ngo gave his account of the shooting incident in this 2003 CP cover story.