Milwaukee police shoot, kill armed man on south side
Milwaukee police officers shot and killed a 27-year-old Milwaukee man who confronted them with a firearm about 1 a.m. Monday on the south side, police said.
According to Milwaukee police, officers responded to a ShotSpotter alert in the 1500 block of South Union Street. As squads responded, the call was updated to a subject with a gun with a suspect’s description.
Three minutes after the ShotSpotter alert, police saw a suspect who matched the description.
Officers told the person to stop and take his hands out of his pockets, but he ignored their commands and ran away. During the chase, police continued to yell at the suspect to stop and show his hands.
When the man brandished a firearm, officers fired, fatally wounding him about a block and a half away from the Union Street call. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
His name was not released Monday. “We are still trying to determine the connection with this subject and a shots fired complaint into a residence at the 1500 block of South Union,” Milwaukee Police Chief Alfonso Morales said at a news conference at the scene.
Three officers were involved in the incident and were not injured: a 30year-old man with more than 21⁄2 years of service, a 31-year-old man with more than four years of law enforcement service and a 23-year-old man with more than 11⁄2 years of service.
The Milwaukee Area Investigative Team, led by the Greenfield Police Department,
is investigating the shooting.
Edgar Mendez lives in a single family home right in front of the spot where the suspect was shot to death.
Mendez, his wife and four children were awakened by a series of gunshots. His bedroom fronts the street, and Mendez could hear police yelling for the suspect to stay down and not to move.
“I looked outside and I saw police standing over the man, putting pressure on the wound on his head. There was a pool of blood forming around his head,” Mendez said in a phone interview Monday afternoon as he watched the suspect’s family and friends gather at the shooting spot to hug each other and tie balloons to a tree.
Mendez leaned in front of his 5-yearold son and 8-year-old daughter in their bedroom as he heard the commotion outside because he was worried for their safety. His 14-year-old daughter heard the shots and yelling and looked out a window to see the suspect’s body on the pavement.
Mendez told his youngest children “that they’re safe, that sometimes bad things happen, to pray for the person who lost their life”
Mendez, 41, is a senior staff reporter at the Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service and was an intern at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in 2014.
Mendez and his family have lived in the home for four years. He said it’s not rare to hear gunshots in the neighborhood.
On Facebook he wrote, “I love this city and this neighborhood and that’s what keeps me living and working here, but this and all the other things that have been happening are almost too much. Just makes me sad and worried for the future of our children.”