A Minnesota man was shot in the neck while cleaning his yard by a 54-year-old neighbor who warned him not to touch a particular tree on the property amid nearly a year of ‘racial threats’ .

Surveillance footage of the shooting showed Davis Moturi working outside his Minneapolis home trimming a tree when the bullet struck him in broad daylight.

Police claimed Moturi’s neighbor John Sawchak pulled the trigger after months of escalating tensions between the neighbors.

“The gunk went down my neck and then back up to my spine,” Moturi KARE 11 said.

A criminal complaint, obtained by CNN, said Moturi, who is black, claimed his white neighbor used “racially charged language” in October 2023 and called him a “black bastard” in May.

Moturi reportedly called the police to report at least 19 incidents of threats, hate speech and harassment by Sawchak, but nothing was done.

Moturi told police that his neighbor threatened to shoot him “if he touched a certain tree.” While Moturi was cutting down that tree, Shawchak allegedly shot the neighbor from his open upstairs window.

Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara acknowledged that his department “failed” to prevent the shooting and agreed that officers should have responded much sooner before Moturi was shot on Oct. 23, the news outlet added.

“We failed this victim 100 percent,” Chief O’Hara admitted.

Officers knew Sawchak had mental health issues and tried to arrest the alleged gunman for at least six months, Chief O’Hara claims.

“We tried to get this person into safe custody, which would mean getting him out of the house when he’s not around guns or other weapons,” Chief O’Hara added.

On October 28, a SWAT team and special tactics unit smashed the windows of the accused shooter’s home after a behavioral threat team, a psychiatrist and his family members failed to get him out of his home.

When police entered the home, Sawchak surrendered and was taken into custody.

Sawchak faces multiple charges, including attempted murder, stalking and harassment.

The community flooded the Minneapolis City Council meeting on Halloween to share their outrage at the police response.

The Minneapolis City Council passed a resolution asking the city auditor to conduct an independent review of the city’s involvement and delayed responding to the attack.

“We have a responsibility to figure out how and why this gap occurred and then take full responsibility for any individual actor or city policies that allowed this to happen so that it doesn’t happen again,” he said. Minneapolis City Council member Robin Wonsley during the Oct. 31 meeting.

Prosecutors say race played a role in the killing.

“I don’t call the police for fun. I’m calling because I want my family to be safe,” Moturi told KARE 11 from his hospital bed.

“The safety of our residents is a top priority and any form of violence or hate speech is completely unacceptable and does not align with who we are as a community,” a spokesman for Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey. he wrote in a statement.