Family of Grand Forks Police Chief issues call to action against Timothy Charles Holmseth on Facebook

by Timothy Charles Holmseth on December 25, 2016, 7:57 P.M. CST

Hunter Nelson and Nick Nelson, two of Grand Forks Police Chief Mark Nelson’s sons, issued a call to action today via Facebook regarding articles published on Write Into Action about a local police shooting and drug trafficking.

Mark Nelson

The Nelson’s want the public to scorn investigative journalist Timothy Charles Holmseth (me).

“If anyone wants a good laugh this Christmas, they should read anything that Timothy Holmseth has posted. He is a self-claimed award winning "journalist" who has nothing better to do than attempt to give a bad name to people who are more successful than he is. He is the kind of guy who did not receive enough attention from mommy and daddy as a child so he writes absolutely absurd "articles" making false claims about our local law enforcement being involved in a drug trafficking ring so he can get people to pay attention to him for once in his life. Not to mention, these "articles" he writes are being written in the basement of his mother's house, where he most definitely resides. Take some advice, Timmy, and do something else with your life because you are a terrible "writer" and nobody believes the garbage you are producing anyway.”

- Hunter Nelson / Facebook / December 25, 2016

I replied.

“Your dad, Mark Nelson, the Grand Forks Chief of Police, hired Jared Braaten, the UND cop that hid his body cam under his squad car after he shot David James Elliott, an unarmed man, in front of the Altru hospital emergency room.  As a journalist, I made a public records request for the police cams from the GFPD officers at the scene. For some reason, your dad then issued a ‘Special Order’ so the videos could be destroyed. And that all reflects poorly on me – how???”

Nelson told me I am not important enough to cause anybody to worry.

He then challenged me to show evidence that a ‘Special Order’ had been issued by GFPD Chief Mark Nelson to get rid of police-cam evidence of the David James Elliott shooting. I posted a copy of the Order on Nelson’s Facebook page, which now appears to have been scrubbed.

Hunter Nelson, an employee at Grand Forks County Corrections, originally began posting about me in March, 2016, where he said I am a “coward” because I am not a police officer.

Hunter Nelson

"Timothy Holmseth posting this extreme leftist garbage. This guy actually thinks he knows what he's talking about. It's borderline sad. This guy has nothing better to do with his time than to pretend like he knows how to do a police officer's job. I wonder if he knows that this man attempted to run over police officers and even rammed squad cars. He believes everything the liberal media says but is too much of a coward to do the job that our police officers do every day. He is pathetic."

Today, Nelson’s friends joined in and bombarded me with names including vulgarities pertaining to the female anatomy.

I firmly believe this is a public safety issue because organized members of law enforcement and other government agencies are conspiring together, along with the local media, to conceal the truth from the public.

I have confirmed the following through public documents, police records, and BCI post- shooting interviews regarding the David James Elliot pursuit and shooting.

The David James Elliott pursuit and shooting

• David James Elliott telephoned Grand Forks PSAP (911) almost immediately after GFPD Dan Harvala attempted to pull him over for running a red light. David Elliott had no meaningful criminal history and there is no known reason he would feel compelled to flee at very high speeds. He stayed on 911 with a police officer, GFPD officer Matthew Bullinger, for some two hours until he was shot while holding the phone.

• David Elliott made arrangements to meet GFPD officer Matthew Bullinger at Altru. After arriving in front of the E/R David Elliott is seen pointing in the direction where UND officer Jerad Braaten is approaching him. He fled again on four flat tires and was shot through his back window by Jerad Braaten.

• David Elliott was unarmed.

• David Elliott had thousands of prescription pills in his truck that BCI agent Michael Ness said where in “bags”.

• Jennifer Elliott, David Elliott’s wife, said all the pills her husband possessed were all coming from Altru doctors.

•  Grand Forks PSAP deleted the 911 call.

• UND police officer Jerad Braaten was not scheduled to work on the night he interjected himself into a slow speed pursuit and shot David Elliott. 

• UND police officer Jerad Braaten, a rookie cop on his first job, was inexplicably training an intern (on a night he was not even supposed to work), Heather Hopkins, on the night of the shooting. 

• David Elliott was nearly completely stopped atop the Columbia Road Bridge where he was trying to meet GFPD officer Matthew Bullinger. He continued inching forward as Jerad Braaten was pointing a gun at him.

• The audio portion of UND police officer Jerad Braaten’s body-cam captured him telling Hopkins he hoped to provoke David Elliott into ramming him.  

• David James Elliott told Write Into Action (Timothy Charles Holmseth) that Jerad Braaten attempted to shoot him minutes before the actual shooting, while atop the Columbia Road Bridge, but his gun jammed.

• The audio portion of Jerad Braaten’s body-cam reveals a clicking sound on Braaten’s gun that sounds like a misfire atop the Columbia Road Bridge.  

• Jerad Braaten’s dash-cam was never found and/or entered into BCI evidence. 

• Jerad Braaten’s body-cam was found underneath his squad car where he tried to hide it.  

• Jerad Braaten did not put his body-cam on his shirt until a few minutes before he joined the pursuit and shot David Elliott (although he had supposedly been on-duty for hours). 

• Jerad Braaten had UNDPD intern Heather Hopkins put the body-cam on his shirt, which was placed on him improperly and captured no visual (except the moment it’s thrown under the car).

• After the shooting, the audio portion of Jerad Braaten’s body-cam reveals he asked Heather Hopkins if she saw David Elliott try to run a police officer over. Hopkins promptly replied yes. Braaten then told her he would need a witness statement confirming it and she said she would give it. However, when Hopkins was interviewed by the BCI she balked, and said she didn’t see what happened.

• GFPD Sgt. Mark Ellingson, the officer that Jerad Braaten said he was worried about, is captured on audio at the scene telling Jerad Braaten he was never in any danger.

• UNDPD chief Eric Plummer reprimanded Jerad Braaten in writing regarding issues with his police-cams.

• GFPD chief Mark Nelson subsequently hired Jerad Braaten onto his Department.

• Videos obtained by Write Into Action have been tampered with by someone using a video editor. For instance – dash-cam from the squad car of GFPD officer Dan Harvala is in clear crisp color on most of the footage. However, the portion that actually shows the shooting in the distance has been converted to black and white which obscures the details.

• Video showing what happened atop the Columbia Road Bridge has been redacted.

• Videos obtained by Write Into Action reveal the time-stamps on the dash-cams do not even remotely match the events taking place on the officer body-cams.

• David Elliot was shot three times in the head and his ear drum was blown out. Two of his fingers were shot off but re-attached.

• After being hired by the GFPD, Jerad Braaten was at the scene of a fireworks accident in Grand Forks where a man’s fingers were blown off. The fingers disappeared. They were found later on a picnic table in East Grand Forks.

The following is my investigative opinion.

• It is my investigative opinion that Jerad Braaten sounds like a psychopath when he is talking to Heather Hopkins.

• It is my opinion Jerad Braaten may have taken the fingers from the fireworks scene and kept them. He may have placed them in the Red River Valley Campground as a trophy of what he did to David Elliott and/or an ominous message to the drug trafficking underworld. 

• It is my opinion GFPD chief Mark Nelson has violated his oath, betrayed the public, and is engaging in extensive efforts to cover up events that involve drug trafficking, shootings, and homicide(s).

Visit the Home Page of Write Into Action for more information and stories on the above listed facts.

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