Williamson Street remains closed Thursday, July 23, a day after a Madison police officer shot and killed a man armed with a knife.
The shooting took place around 1:35 p.m. July 22 at the intersection of Williamson and South Baldwin streets while multiple officers attempted to arrest the man, who was suspected of stealing bicycles and trying to enter unlocked vehicles. The man drew a knife during the encounter, injuring an officer, before that officer shot and killed the man, Madison Police Chief John Patterson said at a July 22 press conference.
The man shot and killed was in his 30s, police said. He wasn’t identified by Patterson or other authorities following the shooting.
The officer who killed the man is considered a veteran officer, but Patterson didn’t know how long he had been with the department. Patterson said once the man pulled out a knife, the situation quickly escalated, narrowing the “scope of options and possible outcomes.”
Bystander videos of the shooting circulated widely, drawing criticism from many people online and some Wisconsin politicians.
Protests followed the shooting, with people marching from the scene to the Wisconsin Capitol and back. The march started with around 200 people gathering in the immediate aftermath of the shooting. Some people yelled at officers, others cried, some chanted “we don’t want no killer cops” and some held “Black Lives Matter” signs.
Where the man was shot, people wrote messages, like “He should be alive” in chalk. They laid bouquets of flowers and candles on the street, where the man’s bloodstains remained visible.
The Wisconsin Department of Justice’s Division of Criminal Investigation is investigating the shooting.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Williamson Street remains closed day after fatal Madison police shooting
Reporting by Elena Metinidis, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Elena Metinidis, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel | USA TODAY Network
