MAN SHOT IN DRUG STING GONE AWRY REJECTS POLICE STORY

Michael W. Ivory says he's sore, tired and confused.

The stories in newspapers and on TV about his alleged role in a drug buy
with Minneapolis police last week that ended in the fatal shooting of his
friend in St. Paul are full of lies, he said. Ivory was shot three times and
says he can't understand why officers would fire at two unarmed men in a
car.

"I thought thugs were shooting at us," said Ivory, who spoke publicly
Wednesday for the first time since the shooting Nov. 21 near Mickey's Diner
in downtown St. Paul.

Minneapolis police have said an undercover drug buy had been arranged with
Ivory after a monthlong investigation. Chief Robert Olson said Ivory told
undercover officers that Minneapolis was "too hot" with police and that he
wanted to conduct the sale in public.

Ivory, of St. Paul, disputed those statements Thursday, saying he didn't
have any knowledge of a drug deal. St. Paul police are investigating the
shooting, but Minneapolis police spokeswoman Cyndi Montgomery said the
narcotics case had been given this week to the Minneapolis city attorney's
office for consideration.

St. Paul police spokesman Michael Jordan said that he couldn't comment on
the investigation and that he wasn't going to debate Ivory's accusations at
this point. The truth will come out, Jordan said, and it will be interesting
to see if what Ivory says to the news media will correspond to what he said
in his police statement.

According to police, two St. Paul officers were dispatched Nov. 21 to meet
with Minneapolis officers at W. 7th and St. Peter Sts. to serve as backup.
One of the undercover Minneapolis officers was wearing a microphone.

Police said that Ivory, 39, and James C. Fye, 29, wanted to make the deal
elsewhere, but that officers tried to arrest them in the parking lot of the
diner after the men indicated they had marijuana. Fye backed up his car,
hesitated and squealed his tires, hooking one officer on a rearview mirror
and hitting another, police said.

Three officers fired.

Ivory gave a different scenario. He said he was at his niece's home when
Fye, whom he'd met in prison, picked him up to give him a ride to work. They
stopped at the diner, Ivory said, but he wouldn't tell reporters why they
stopped there.

Fye had a conversation from his car with some people in the parking lot but
didn't tell Ivory what they talked about, he said. As Fye was driving away,
Ivory said, he heard three shots hit the car's passenger side.

"I didn't see any cops, didn't see any badges," he said. "That's when I told
him to get out of there because we don't know what was going on. That's when
tires squealed."

An officer jumped in front of the car and fired four shots, Ivory said. He
didn't know Fye was dead, because he appeared to be in control of the car.
Fye hit several other cars on 7th Street before crashing into the side of
the Free at Last Church of God in Christ about four blocks away. No drugs or
guns were found in the car.

"Jim wasn't a bad guy," he said. "He has a family and friends out there. I'm
afraid this can happen to somebody else."

Police said Ivory was shot once, but he said two bullets also grazed his
head. His sister, Denise Lucas, said she was upset that she wasn't allowed
to see him immediately.

It's standard policy for the agency filing charges to recommend that only a
suspect's attorney can visit during the first 48 hours in custody, said Mark
Naylon, spokesman for the Ramsey County Sheriff's Office.

"Ivory was also acting up and was under disciplinary segregation," he said.

Fye was convicted in 1991 of beating a 22-year-old St. Paul man to death
following a drinking party in a riverbank cave. Ivory's criminal record
includes convictions for drugs, robbery, forgery and burglary.

But Ivory questions why police believed he was involved in a Minneapolis
drug deal, saying he hasn't been there since June.