Angelique Sharpe, whose brother Samuel Sharpe Jr. was killed by Ohio police officers assisting with security at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, speaks in Red Arrow Park on July 18, 2024. (Matt Masterson / WTTW News)

The family of a man who was fatally shot in Milwaukee this week by Ohio police officers assisting with Republican National Convention security said he was defending himself against another person when he was killed.

Local activists joined family members of Samuel Sharpe Jr. in Red Arrow Park, just blocks from Fiserv Forum, where the RNC will conclude after Donald Trump accepts the party’s presidential nomination in a speech Thursday evening.

They said Sharpe Jr., 43, had been defending himself against a man who’d been harassing and threatening him in the tent encampment where they live on Milwaukee’s Near West Side when police from Columbus, Ohio, saw the altercation and fatally shot him.

“How do we know if the police killed the perpetrator or the victim here?” asked Sharpe Jr.’s sister Angelique Sharpe.

Thursday’s rally was held in memory of both Sharpe Jr. and 43-year-old D’Vontaye Mitchell, who died last month after being pinned down by security outside a Milwaukee hotel. Their family members joined several dozen community members and activists in a march from the park to the hotel where Mitchell died last month.

The shooting of Sharpe Jr. occurred Tuesday afternoon near 14th and Vliet streets — about seven blocks from where the RNC’s soft security perimeter ends — in an area that was a part of the Columbus officers’ assigned zone.

The Milwaukee Police Department said it intended for out-of-state officers to work in non-forward-facing assignments, while local police would interact directly with community members, protesters and anyone else.

“This ain’t y’all community,” Angelique Sharpe said. “I would rather have had Milwaukee Police Department, who know the people of this community, to have at least had an opportunity to address this situation before people who have no ties to this community and don’t care nothing about our extended family members.”

A rally was held in honor of Samuel Sharpe Jr. and D’Vontaye Mitchell in Red Arrow Park in Milwaukee on July 18, 2024. (Matt Masterson / WTTW News)

Columbus police officials quickly released body-camera footage of the fatal shooting, which showed officers rushing over to an apparent altercation between two men — Sharpe Jr., who appeared to be holding a pair of knives, and an unarmed man. After repeatedly telling Sharpe Jr. to drop his weapons, officers open fire as Sharpe Jr. took a step toward the other man, the video shows.

Sharpe Jr.’s family claimed the unarmed man in the video had previously threatened to kill him, and that Sharpe Jr. had reported this to local police, but no action was taken. His family also said Sharpe Jr. had a limp and suffered from medical issues that affected his gait, claiming he was trying to gather his balance, rather than lunging at the other man.

When the shooting occurred, the Columbus officers were not responding to a call for service — which would remain a duty of the MPD — but instead observed the altercation between Sharpe Jr. and the other man and attempted to intervene.

Those officers, who were assigned to a bike team, were on their own undergoing a daily briefing on protest events just before the shooting. Following the shooting, the MPD began assigning a Milwaukee officer to specialty units as well as all forward-facing roles.

The Columbus officers involved in the shooting are no longer working RNC security, Milwaukee police confirmed.

Chicago police officials have said all outside agency officers coming to the city for the Democratic National Convention next month will work strictly within the security perimeters around the United Center and McCormick Place. Only CPD officers will work outside those zones.

“The districts themselves are going to be all Chicago police,” CPD Deputy Chief Duane DeVries told WTTW News in Milwaukee Wednesday. “We’re not asking any outside resources to patrol the city of Chicago. There will be supervision from Chicago — not because we’re watching them or have to supervise them — but just so we can get them from point A to point B logistically.”

Chicago Police Superintendent Larry Snelling this week said that having outside police coming to assist with the DNC will allow his own officers to work elsewhere in the city during the convention.

“We also have to protect neighborhoods during that time,” Snelling said during a Monday news conference. “So this will help us free up our Chicago police officers to make sure that they’re available to respond to any crimes that are happening outside of the DNC footprint.”