MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota — A family is pleading for answers after their brother was assaulted in downtown Minneapolis and died 10 days later. It happened in May and according to the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD), no arrests have been made.
James "Jimmy" Quigley, 53, had been out with friends earlier in the night for a concert.
"You don't think you're going to go out for a night with your friends to go to a concert... and you're going to have the life beaten out of you," said Michelle Swanson, Quigley's sister.
On the night of May 3, Quigley went to a Charlie Parr concert at First Avenue. Swanson said based on a picture found on Quigley's phone, he then went alone to Gluek's Restaurant and Bar.
Swanson said the next part is unclear but she believes he went to Nicollet Mall to catch an Uber back to his home in Spring Park.
Surveillance video shows the assault but Swanson said the family has not been able to view it. However, Swanson said an officer described it to her and said, "As he (Quigley) walked by the bus shelter at 925 Nicollet, there were some people in there... a couple of people. There was some type of a verbal altercation. I don't know what it was about. Jim kept walking but then turned around to say something, or go back and then turned, and when he turned, then he was jumped."
Someone called 911 and Quigley was taken to Hennepin County Medical Center.
According to the police report, it happened around 12:45 a.m. on May 4 and there was at least one witness.
"His mouth was pretty badly cut. He hit the back of his head on the cement and he was intubated that evening. Then he was getting better during the week. But then he started to decline and on Sunday, Mother's Day, he was taken into surgery to have a shunt put in his brain. That's at the point he had a massive stroke in the back of the brain where the brain injury was," Swanson recalled.
May 14, Quigley's six siblings decided to take him off life support. He died 15 minutes later.
The Hennepin County Medical Examiner's Office released Quigley's report Wednesday, stating the manner of death as homicide and the cause as "complications of blunt force craniocerebral injuries."
"We need some answers," Swanson said. "Jim was the peaceful one. You know, he was the happy guy. He was the baby of seven."
Quigley was a Gulf War veteran who served on the USS Orion and the USS Stark.
At the end of June, the family held a celebration of life for Quigley at Fort Snelling National Cemetery.
Swanson described her brother as a "lifelong bachelor" who lived downtown for 20 years before moving to Spring Park. For most of his career, he worked downtown in security. About two months before his death, Quigley started a new job with Nationwide Organ Recovery Transport Alliance (NORA). It was his job to drive donated kidneys to the hospital. Ultimately, the family was able to donate Quigley's kidneys — one to a 70-year-old man and the other to a 54-year-old woman.
"At the end of his life, Jim was still giving," Swanson said.
Swanson said the family has been frustrated over the lack of answers.
"We've asked if they've used facial recognition or any type of AI and they've told us, no they can't. They're not allowed to at Minneapolis police, which is unfortunate. We know there's cameras all over the city. It was a busy weekend in the city," Swanson said.
According to Minneapolis Police Sgt. Garrett Parten, MPD is prohibited in any shape or form from using facial recognition software. In 2021, the Minneapolis City Council voted to ban the city from buying or using facial recognition technology and data, with limited exceptions. The city stated among its concerns that facial recognition technology has been shown to lack accuracy in identifying people of color and women.
"Someone had to see this; someone knows what happened," Swanson said. "We want justice for him. This should not have happened."
Anyone with information about that night, that could help the investigation, should contact Minneapolis police or Crimestoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS.