A Madison police officer shot and killed a man who had injured him with a knife while resisting arrest, the city’s police chief said Wednesday.
Cellphone video of the shooting circulated on social media shortly after the incident. Three gunshots can be heard on the cellphone video.
Madison Police Chief John Patterson stressed at a news conference that the footage circulating was just one perspective of what happened.
“I want to take a moment to honestly and sincerely offer my heartfelt sympathies to his family for this loss,” Patterson said. The dead man was in his 30s, Patterson said, but police did not release his name.
The shooting happened on a city street in a popular neighborhood lined with restaurants, bars, shops and residential homes less than two miles from the state Capitol. Footage of the incident shows numerous cars stopped in the intersection with people watching as it unfolded.
A white police officer shot and killed Tony Robinson, who was biracial, on the same street in 2015, a shooting that spurred large protests. The district attorney did not file charges against police in that incident, determining the officer was justified.
The race of the officer who fired his gun on Wednesday and that of the man killed were not released by police. But advocates for the Black community in Madison said the man killed was Black.
“Another Black man is dead on a Madison street, and our community watched him die before we even knew his name,” said Brandi Grayson, the head of the Madison-based Black community advocacy group Urban Triage. “That is the cruelty of state violence.”
A crowd formed near where the shooting occurred on Wednesday with people chanting, “Arrest the cops!”
They placed flowers and candles where the man was shot and held a vigil.
Protesters also marched to the Wisconsin State Capitol and took the stage at a summer concert series, demanding the name of the officer and that he be held accountable. The Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra announced on social media the show was canceled.
Police were responding to calls that someone was attempting to enter parked vehicles in the neighborhood, Patterson said. The suspect fled on a bike through nearby backyards in an attempt to get away before officers contacted him in the street, Patterson said.
The suspect either fell off of his bike or was taken off of his bike by officers and during the struggle pulled out a knife and injured an officer, Patterson said. Police posted a picture of the knife in a news release.
An officer deployed a taser but it was unsuccessful, the chief said. The same officer who was injured by the knife fired his weapon and the man who was shot died later at the hospital, the chief said. He described the officer who fired his weapon as a veteran officer, but did not reveal any other details.
Another officer was injured, but it is not clear how, Patterson said. The other two officers were uninjured.
The Wisconsin Department of Criminal Investigation will investigate the shooting because it involves police officers. The four responding officers will be placed on administrative leave, per the police department’s policy.
