DA won’t charge Tosa cop who shot woman
The Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office said a Wauwatosa police officer acted in self-defense after shooting and injuring a woman who was using a solid wooden stake to hit the officer’s squad car.
Tinesha Jarrett, who had left a nearby mental health complex just hours before the shooting, also cracked the windshield of Wauwatosa Police Officer Amanda Hodgson’s squad car after Hodgson responded to a call of a woman “violently attacking a female victim with a stick.”
Jarrett, 35, also refused to drop the stake and advanced upon the officer, hitting the driver’s side door with the stake during the incident, which occurred in Wauwatosa’s village area on Dec. 10, 2020.
In a letter, Kent Lovern, chief deputy district attorney for Milwaukee County, said Hodgson “did not act contrary to the criminal statutes under the circumstances of this incident.”
“In evaluating the legal privilege of self-defense, Hodgson had an actual subjective belief that potentially deadly force was necessary under the circumstances,” the letter said.
The Milwaukee Area Investigative Team, led by the West Allis Police Department, investigated the incident. It completed the investigation on Dec. 8.
In an apartment building lobby Dec. 10, Jarrett had grabbed an orange driveway plow stick and “repeatedly struck” a person with it, causing injuries to the victim’s head and arm.
At 9:20 p.m., Hodgson saw Jarrett walking near 1422 Underwood Ave. She was carrying the plow stick as well as a lawn ornament attached to a “solid wooden stake.”
As Hodgson pulled her squad car near Jarrett, Jarrett began to hit the car with the stake. Hodgson called for backup and then got out of her vehicle.
“Hodgson repeatedly ordered Jarrett to drop the stake. Jarrett refused to do so and instead repeatedly yelled at Hodgson to shoot her,” the synopsis letter said.
Jarrett also swung the stake and struck the driver’s side door of the squad car, which was between the two of them.
That’s when Hodgson fired her gun three times, striking Jarrett in the torso.
Jarrett continued to yell and approached the squad car again. Another Wauwatosa police officer then deployed his Taser at Jarrett.
Jarrett was not charged.