A Wisconsin police officer fatally shot a man after the officer was injured with a knife while attempting an arrest, local officials said on Wednesday, stirring protests in the city of Madison.
The Madison Police Department has not revealed the identity of the victim or the officers involved. It said the man was in his 30s and had pulled out a knife during a struggle with the police. Madison Police Chief John Patterson, speaking at a news conference, said officers had first tried to incapacitate the man with a Taser before he was shot.
Four officers were involved, and one fired his weapon, Chief Patterson said. Another officer was also injured during the struggle but it was unclear how, he said, adding that the injury did not appear to be from the knife. All four officers will be put on administrative leave, the chief said.
Video of the shooting circulated widely on social media soon after. Chief Patterson said the footage was only “one perspective” of what transpired and added that “not all perspectives are online right now.”
The Wisconsin Department of Justice said it was investigating the shooting, which took place on a busy street in the Marquette neighborhood near the State Capitol, according to the police.
Officers responded on Wednesday afternoon to reports of a person stealing bicycles and attempting to enter parked vehicles, the police said. The suspect fled on a bicycle, Chief Patterson said at the news conference. When the police caught up to him later, the man either fell or was pulled off, the chief said, and during the ensuing struggle with four officers he pulled out a knife and injured one of them.
After the officers unsuccessfully used a Taser, the injured officer fired his weapon, the police said. The man was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
On Wednesday evening, hundreds of protesters marched from the neighborhood where the shooting took place to the State Capitol, according to local media reports. A concert scheduled to take place that night near the Capitol was canceled by the organizers.
In the same neighborhood, in 2015, a white police officer shot and killed Anthony Robinson, a biracial man, sparking protests. The district attorney did not file charges against the police in that incident, deeming that the officer had been justified.
Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway of Madison, a Democrat, said she was “angered and saddened” by the Wednesday shooting. Gov. Tony Evers of Wisconsin, a Democrat, said of the man killed that “his life mattered,” and urged protesters to demonstrate peacefully.
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