MADISON, Wis. — The independent police monitor in Wisconsin’s capital accused police on Thursday of obstructing her investigation into an officer’s deadly shooting of a man who was being arrested.
The monitor, Aeiramique Glass, said she planned to issue a subpoena to the department to get evidence it has gathered in the Wednesday shooting. Glass said police have not provided her with the name of the officer who fired the shots.
“I believe the [Madison Police Department] and the city is obstructing what the community and the public voted for, which is this office, for me to do my job,” she told reporters on Thursday at the site of the shooting. “Let me do my job.”
Glass said she wanted all the material that police has provided to the state’s Justice Department, which is also investigating the shooting. Glass said she planned to issue a subpoena to the department for the first time since she started serving as monitor eight months ago.
Glass said she arrived on the scene soon after the shooting and has been gathering as much information as she can. She said a nearby grocery co-op provided her with video footage on Thursday that has not been released publicly.
Police Chief John Patterson briefed Glass on the shooting soon after it happened but did not give her the officer’s name and later declined to give her evidence, she said.
A spokesperson for Patterson did not immediately respond to Glass’s comments, but the police chief said Wednesday that he supported the monitor’s role in reviewing the shooting.
“I think civilian involvement and oversight is important, and I will absolutely work with the independent monitor and cooperate and collaborate to the extent that I can,” he said.
On Wednesday, a Madison officer fatally shot a man in his 30s during an arrest attempt, Patterson said. The man was pronounced dead at a hospital.
The incident was captured on video and shared widely online. During a struggle with officers, the man pulled out a knife and injured one of them, Patterson said at a Wednesday news conference. The officer who was hurt was the one who shot the man, according to the police department.
On Thursday, a few dozen people chatted and hugged one another at the site of the shooting. A makeshift shrine was marked “sacred ground” in chalk and included flowers and signs that said, “Stop the murders” and “Black Lives Matter.”
Thirty or so people paid vigil through the night at the site, said James Webster, one of those who stayed overnight.
“I have my two daughters, and I want them to grow up in a world [where] our first instinct isn’t shooting somebody — killing somebody, at that — for simply resisting arrest,” said Webster, 27. “That’s something cops see every day and are trained to handle, especially when it’s one man against four officers.”
Webster said police should be better trained and equipped with body cameras. The officers were not wearing cameras when the shooting occurred, Patterson said.
Rachel Lerman contributed to this report.
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