Court records from a Minneapolis man accused of shooting a neighbor show a pattern of harassment

MINNEAPOLIS – Newly uncovered court documents accuse John Sawchak a long history of violence.

In the documents, Sawchak is accused of hitting a neighbor with a wooden stick, slashing the tires of a police car and threatening to kill other neighbors.

Last week, Davis Moturi said he was doing yard work outside his home in south Minneapolis when Sawchak shot him.

Sawchak faces attempted murder charges for the shooting of Moturi. His bail is set at $1 million.

Court documents show Sawchak's problems with neighbors spanned nearly a decade.

A request for a restraining order in 2015 came from a mother of three who lived in the same house where Moturi now lives.

According to one of the documents, the mother wrote, “Children are afraid to sleep in their rooms or go to the bathroom alone” and “I'm really afraid that something terrible might happen before anything is done.”

In the same restraining order, she said, “The police told us to keep calling,” but “whenever they come, John is already at his house and they can't get him.”

In 2016, Carole Megarry filed a restraining order after claiming Sawchak was yelling at and recording her.

“The now 77-year-old wrote back then,” she thought [of] I'm leaving the neighborhood and moving somewhere where I don't have to worry about this man.

“It was definitely intimidating, definitely a state of alertness where you're always looking and listening,” Megarry said.

Instead of leaving, she adapted.

Things took a turn for the worse in 2022 when she let her dog out.

“He came at me with a piece of lumbar spine about 10cm long. He was screaming at me and chasing me,” Megarry recalled. “I was afraid I could have been killed.”

Since then, Megarry says, she has avoided Sawchak, going so far as not to even enter the alley of her house.

Neighbors said they were upset with how police handled the situation and how they left the situation with Sawchak unnoticed.

Megarry said many neighbors knew not to engage with him and just ignore him.

While Sawchak's house is still boarded up, neighbors like Megarry say they feel safer knowing he is in custody, but at the same time they feel uneasy.

On Friday, The Minneapolis NAACP said dereliction of duty led to the shooting and would like a sincere apology from Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara and Mayor Jacob Frey. Public information officials in Minneapolis said O'Hara had already done so during a news conference this week.