Minnesota Supreme Court rules person being threatened cannot brandish weapon if 'reasonably possible to retreat'

The Minnesota Supreme Court ruled that when a person is being threatened or attacked, he or she must retreat if “reasonably possible” rather than brandish a “dangerous weapon.”

In June 2021, Earley Romero Blevins pulled out a machete after a man with a knife allegedly threatened him on a rail platform in Minnesota. Blevins was arguing with a woman when the man approached him, and he said the man with the knife told him to come to the shelter at the station so “he could slice Blevins’s throat.” Blevins argued he pointed the machete at the woman and two men because he feared for his safety.