Columbus, Ohio police shoot homeless man in Milwaukee park a mile from RNC security perimeter

Residents of a Milwaukee neighborhood about a mile from the Republican National Convention gather after a police shooting at King Park. (Photo by Henry Redman, Wisconsin Examiner, States Newsroom.)

Columbus, Ohio police officers shot and killed a homeless man close to Milwaukee’s King Park on Tuesday. The shooting took place more than a mile from the security perimeter of the Republican National Convention, which has drawn more than 4,000 police officers from across the country to the city.

Security camera video of the incident, obtained by the Wisconsin Examiner from the Milwaukee Alliance, a community organizing group, shows two men walking into the street appearing to be fighting when the police officers enter the frame and immediately shoot one of the men.

A group of teenagers who were playing basketball at the park said the police started firing within 20 seconds of arriving at the scene. King Park is known to have a tent community of unhoused people, which has fluctuated in size over the years. On Monday evening, the Poor People’s Army led a march from King Park to the Republican National Convention grounds to raise awareness of the needs of unhoused people. Community members near the scene said the victim, first identified by Urban Milwaukee as Sam Sharpe, lived in the encampment in the park. Some local residents said the man was known to live in the park with his dog.

Residents of the neighborhood said they want to know why the Ohio officers were outside the RNC  security zone. “I heard the chief say that he was going to protect not only the zone, but the city,” neighborhood resident Carl Gray told Wisconsin Examiner. “We ain’t protected, that’s not protection when you have Ohio police that’s coming here and killing Milwaukee residents.”

Aurelia Ceja, a spokesperson for the Milwaukee Alliance, told the Wisconsin Examiner that the shooting was a “worst case scenario” of the RNC coming to Milwaukee after activists had warned city officials that inviting thousands of additional law enforcement officers to the community was a threat. She added that Milwaukee Police Chief Jeffrey Norman said prior to the convention that cops from outside agencies would not be patrolling outside of the security footprint of the convention.

Brian Steel, president of the Columbus Police Union, said in a statement that the union had “been made aware that members of the Columbus Division of Police were involved in an officer-involved shooting at the Republican National Convention … No officers have been injured.”

Steel told the Examiner that Columbus sent 40 officers to Milwaukee for the RNC, adding that while he expected the two officers involved in the shooting to leave, the others would remain in the city to “complete their mission.”

With thousands of police in the city from federal, state and local agencies across the country, questions have been referred to the Milwaukee Police Department, which as of 5:45 on Tuesday evening, had not yet made a statement on the incident.

A candlelight vigil is planned for 8 p.m. at King Park.

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