Ex-Milwaukee Cop Who Killed Man With 14 Shots Not Charged
A former Milwaukee police officer who shot a man 14 times after the victim wrested away his baton and struck him won’t be charged because the fatal April shooting was justified, the district attorney for Milwaukee County said.
District Attorney John Chisholm’s decision is the latest involving a fatal encounter between a white police officer and a black suspect that resulted in no charges after review by prosecutors or grand juries.
The earlier cases included the fatal shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and the choking death of Eric Garner in New York. They resulted in nationwide protests calling for changes, including the appointment of special prosecutors in cases of police officers causing the death of suspects.
Officer Christopher Manney, who is white, fired his weapon after Dontre Hamilton, a mentally disturbed black man, grabbed Manney’s baton from him, and, according to the police officer and witnesses, struck him on the side of the neck. Police officers in Milwaukee, and throughout the U.S., are trained to fire to “stop the threat,” Chisholm said. Manney would have fired 14 shots in 2.99 seconds, he said.
Police Training
“It is very hard to charge a police officer if he has done what he was trained to do,” Chisholm said at a press conference today.
Manney feared Hamilton would attack him with the baton and he “would be dead” as a result, Chisholm said in a report on the incident.
“This was a tragic incident for the Hamilton family and the community,” Chisholm said. “Officer Manney’s use of force in this incident was justified self-defense.”
Milwaukee Police Chief Edward Flynn fired Manney over the incident. The police union has appealed that decision.
Police blocked off Wisconsin Avenue in front of the federal courthouse in Milwaukee today where about 200 people gathered for a press conference by Hamilton’s family and supporters.
“My family has cried too long,” Nate Hamilton, brother of the deceased, said at the press conference. “We must wake the people to show them injustice exists.”
James Hall, president of the Milwaukee branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said the group joined the family in expressing their “utter disappointment” with Chisholm’s decision.
“This decision is just one of many in recent weeks that continue to perpetuate a disheartening notion that there is a significant lapse in accountability for reckless officers and the behavior they employ,” U.S. Representative Gwen Moore, a Wisconsin Democrat, said in a statement on her website.
To contact the reporter on this story: Marie Rohde in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
www.businessweek.com/news/2014-12-22/ex-milwaukee-police-officer-not-charged-in-shooting