Bar owner: Husband threatened life Sen. Lena Taylor was in bar shortly before shooting

Police shot and killed him at Lounge 340

The wife of the man Milwaukee police fatally shot over the weekend said her husband was rampaging through the bar she owned, threatening to kill her, before officers arrived.

Kamesha Taylor said she was in the process of separating with her husband, 49-year-old Anthony Taylor, but he hadn’t tried to hurt her before Saturday night.

Lounge 340, a bar that Kamesha Taylor co-owned with a friend, was celebrating its one-year anniversary that night. The women, neighbors said, were respected business owners who worked hard to keep their bar safe.

In an interview with WITI-TV on Monday, Taylor said if police hadn’t fatally shot her husband, he might have shot her or one of her employees in his rage.

“It would’ve been either him or it would’ve been one of us,” Taylor said.

Milwaukee police responded shortly after 11 p.m. to the 300 block of West Reservoir Avenue for a call of a subject with a gun. As officers were responding, the call was updated to a shots fired complaint.

Taylor said that by the time police responded, her husband had already beaten her, barreled through the bar — injuring others — and waved his gun around, firing shots.

“As they confronted that individual, officers discharged their firearms at the suspect, fatally wounding him,” Assistant Police Chief Michael Brunson said at a news conference.

The party had been going smoothly earlier, Taylor said. Outside on Reservoir Avenue, her husband was manning his food truck, TK’s Smok’n

Smokehouse, which was celebrating its grand opening.

All of a sudden, an employee came inside saying Anthony had pointed a gun at them and punched them. Taylor went outside to talk to her husband, and “from there, he tackled me down to the ground,” she said.

A relative freed Kamesha, and she ran inside and hid in the basement. Anthony Taylor followed, trying to find his wife. A friend ended up smuggling Kamesha away in a car.

Anthony Taylor, his wife recounted, threw chairs and choked one of her employees. He was shouting that he was going to find and kill Kamesha.

Kamesha Taylor said she believes police officers told her husband to drop his gun three times before they shot him.

The couple were married 10 years and share a son. They’d agreed to separate after years of struggling in their marriage. Anthony had trouble accepting this, Kamesha Taylor said.

“He was an awesome person. He was a great dad,” she said. “I think it was just issues that he wasn’t willing to deal and cope with — things like anger management.”

She said she hoped her story would inspire other women facing domestic violence to seek help.

On a campaign swing around Milwaukee Saturday, mayoral candidate state Sen. Lena Taylor had stopped by Lounge 340 to congratulate the owners on their anniversary. She left the bar less than 30 minutes before the shooting happened, she told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

The senator said the owners had hired four security guards for the event, and that everyone was patted down before they could enter the building — “they did everything right,” she said.

Taylor said she knows the owners and has attended events there before.

She hoped the shooting prompted Milwaukee residents to band together to heal from domestic violence and generational trauma.

“We have got to prioritize prevention and healing,” she added, “and that can never start unless we are honest about the root causes behind the things that are happening.”

Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm told the Journal Sentinel his office is reviewing the case.

“It’s going to take some time to examine all of the citizen witness statements,” he said. “There’s video evidence that’s going to have to be gone through, and all of that.”

A 27-year-old officer and a 23-yearold officer, both with two years on the department, were involved in the shooting, Brunson said. Per department policy, they have been placed on administrative duty.

The Milwaukee Area Investigative Team is handling the investigation with the Waukesha Police Department serving as the lead agency.

MICHAEL SEARS / MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL Harold Johnson, the brother-in-law of the man shot by Milwaukee police outside Lounge 340 on West Reservoir Avenue spoke about what happened that night.