Decision not to charge Wisconsin cop in killing protested
The Milwaukee district attorney said Wednesday that he wouldn’t prosecute a police officer who fatally shot an armed Black teenager in a mall parking lot in February, setting off renewed protests over the killing.
Joseph Mensah, a Black police officer in the Wauwatosa Police Department, shot the youth, Alvin Cole, 17, on Feb. 2 after he refused to put down a firearm and ran away from police following a confrontation at the Mayfair Mall.
John Chisholm, the Milwaukee district attorney, said officers reported that Cole had pointed the gun at them at one point and that he had fired the gun while running away.
“In this case, there is sufficient evidence that officer Mensah had an actual subjective belief that deadly force was necessary, and that belief was objectively reasonable,” Chisholm said in a 14-page letter detailing his findings to the city’s police chief, Barry Weber. “I do not believe that the state could disprove self-defense or defense of others in this case and therefore could not meet the burden required to charge officer Mensah.”
A lawyer for Mensah did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Mensah remains on paid administrative suspension, Sgt. Abby Pavlik of the Wauwatosa Police Department said.
Speaking to a crowd of supporters Wednesday, Taleavia Cole, Alvin Cole’s sister, called the district attorney “a fraud” and demanded that Mensah be fired.
“Joseph Mensah should not be working and should have never been working,” she said during a news conference.
Chisholm’s decision was the third time in five years that prosecutors chose not to file charges against Mensah for fatally shooting someone, and the district attorney’s decision drew protests Wednesday night, with many demonstrators ignoring a 7 p.m. curfew.
Later that night, police said a group of protesters threw rocks at law enforcement officials and that officers used tear gas to dispel the crowd.
Chisholm’s decision came the same day an independent investigator issued a 81-page report that recommended Mensah be fired.
The investigator, Steven Biskupic, said in his report that Mensah had made “inconsistent and misleading” statements about the cases.
Keeping Mensah on the force would create “an extraordinary, unwarranted and unnecessary risk” to the department and the city, said Biskupic, a former federal prosecutor.
Pavlik said Weber “will carefully review this report” and added that the department had no further comment.