Crime & Law
Fatal Police Shooting of Man Near RNC Site Had ‘No Other Connections’ to Ongoing Convention: Milwaukee Mayor
Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson addresses the media on July 17, 2024, saying the fatal shooting by Ohio police less than a mile from the Republican National Convention was not connected to the ongoing event. (Matt Masterson / WTTW News)
Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson believes the fatal shooting of a man Tuesday by Columbus, Ohio police officers less than a mile from the Republican National Convention site was not connected to the ongoing event.
Johnson said the officers likely saved the life of an unarmed man who had been in an altercation with a 43-year-old man — identified by family members as Samuel Sharpe Jr. — who police said was carrying a pair of knives near King Park on Milwaukee’s Near West Side.
“No one, absolutely no one, wanted this outcome and I anticipate a full as well as thorough investigation,” Johnson said early Wednesday morning. “The deceased individual had family and friends and my thoughts certainly are with them. My thoughts are also with the police officers from Columbus, Ohio. I’m sure they did not expect to be drawn into a tragic situation such as the one they were involved in yesterday.”
The shooting raised questions as to why out-of-state police officers who are in Milwaukee to assist with RNC security were stationed in a neighborhood outside the convention’s security footprint without supervision from Milwaukee police.
Milwaukee Police Chief Jeffrey Norman on Tuesday said the Columbus officers were assigned to a bike unit and were near King Park undergoing a briefing on protest activity when they saw the altercation between Sharpe and another man and responded.
Johnson said the officers were not “seeking to engage” anybody and simply saw the “situation that was unfolding.”
“Other than the fact that out-of-town officers were involved with this incident,” he said, “I know of no other connections to the convention. The location of this shooting was across a freeway more than three quarters of a mile from the front door of the Fiserv Forum.”
The Columbus Division of Police published body camera video of the incident late Tuesday, hours after the shooting.
In the video, officers can be heard discussing protesters before one officer points out an ongoing fight and says, “He’s got a knife.” The group of officers then takes off toward the man while repeatedly telling him to drop the knife.
As they approached, the man they’re yelling at appeared to be holding a pair of knives and took a step toward another man in the middle of the street before the officers fired a barrage of bullets. One officer repeatedly yelled “Hold fire” after the man collapsed to the ground before the video came to an end.
The officers involved in the shooting were pulled from duty Tuesday and the shooting remains under investigation from the MPD’s Area Investigative Team.
Community members said the shooting occurred near a tent encampment.
Aside from the fatal shooting, Johnson said there have been relatively few safety and security issues through the first two days of the RNC. One person was arrested Tuesday after some “pushing and shoving,” he said, and no one was arrested overnight into Wednesday.
That comes after two people were arrested during and after a large-scale protest downtown Monday.
