Family of Minnesota postal worker who died after police allegedly ignored his stroke files $120M lawsuit

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The family of Kingsley Bimpong is demanding justice after police held the 50-year-old Minnesota postal worker in custody and allegedly ignored clear signs of his stroke during a traffic stop. According to a federal lawsuit, officers jailed Bimpong for six hours without providing medical care, and he later died.

Lawsuit alleges Minnesota postal worker died of stroke in jail cell after officers ignored symptoms

The complaint, filed last Thursday, accuses Eagan Police and Dakota County correctional officers of showing “deliberate indifference” to Kingsley Bimpong’s medical needs. According to the lawsuit, the incident began on November 16, 2024, when Bimpong left work early due to a headache. Minutes later, police pulled him over for allegedly making a left turn at a red light.

“At every step along the way with Eagan [police] and the jail defendants, it was a conscious choice of deliberate indifference to not bring him to the hospital,” Katie Bennett, the family’s attorney, said, reports CBS Minnesota.

What happened to Kingsley Bimpong?

Bodycam footage captured an officer at the traffic stop suggesting that Kingsley Bimpong might be having a stroke, citing his severe physical and cognitive symptoms, according to the lawsuit. In response, the officer contacted Drug Recognition Evaluator Martin Jensen, who was trained to distinguish medical emergencies from drug impairment. However, Jensen allegedly refused to conduct the standard 30–45-minute evaluation, stating on camera that it would be “a whole bunch of time wasted.”

Although Bimpong couldn’t answer basic questions, such as his name or where he lived, officers suspected drug use. They performed no field sobriety test and found no evidence of drugs or alcohol in his vehicle.

Despite clear signs of medical distress and one officer’s stroke concern, no one called paramedics. Instead, authorities transferred Bimpong to Dakota County Jail, where his condition reportedly worsened over five hours and forty minutes.

Images included in the lawsuit show Bimpong lying on the floor of his cell in his own urine while staff stood nearby. Attorneys say medical help was only provided after he began foaming at the mouth. While he was eventually transferred to a hospital, Bimpong later died after suffering a massive brain bleed. Toxicology reports found no drugs or alcohol in his system.

The City of Egan released a statement to KARE11 saying, “While Mr. Bimpong’s death is tragic, he was not exhibiting an objectively serious medical condition that was obvious to lay persons at the time he was in the Eagan officers’ custody and there [was] no indication that he required emergent medical treatment,” the City of Eagan said.

Compensation

The lawsuit seeks $120 million in damages and demands policy changes at the Dakota County Jail. Bimpong’s family argues that his death was preventable and calls for accountability across law enforcement and correctional systems