Photographer says off-duty officer assaulted her at protest
An off-duty Milwaukee police officer and his wife were involved in a scuffle with protesters Sunday night, according to a local photographer who says the officer assaulted her.
Milwaukee police confirmed Monday that an off-duty officer and a family member were “involved in an incident with protesters” about 5:30 p.m. Sunday in the 1000 block of North Old World Third Street but did not provide any more information about what happened.
The officer has not been suspended or placed on leave, police said. The “incident
is under review,” a police department statement reads.
LaTasha Lux of Greenfield works as a professional photographer, according to her website, and has attended many of the recent protests for racial justice in Milwaukee to take photos.
Lux recounted the events to followers on Facebook Sunday night, then posted photos of the couple and asked the public to help identify the man. Commenters determined he is a Milwaukee police officer.
Protesters were marching through downtown when they were “accosted” by the officer and his wife, Lux said in a Facebook livestream. The couple appeared to be intoxicated.
“What I do is I take pictures. So I jumped in the middle to take pictures, and the guy in that group didn’t appreciate that,” Lux told her audience. “After taking a swipe at one other photographer and breaking the lens on his camera, he took a swipe at me and my camera.”
The fellow photographer’s damaged lens cost $700, Lux said. And Lux herself “got whacked in the lip” during the confrontation.
Lux also said the officer and his wife were “hurling obscenities and racial slurs” at the protesters and that the wife threw her drink at them.
Police spent at least four hours at the scene investigating, according to Lux’s posts. They looked at surveillance footage from nearby closed bars and videos from witnesses that Lux said showed the officer punching her.
As news of the incident spread on social media Monday, several people began urging the firing of the officer and his wife from their jobs. Others scoured the internet to find the couple’s home address, phone numbers and social media footprint.
Lux told her audience that she declined to get into a detective’s car for an interview out of fear officers would take her into custody. She was also scared that because she provided her name and address to investigators, the officer would be able to track her down.