Following shooting, Milwaukee Police officers will now accompany out-of-state bicycle units

Milwaukee's King Park surrounded by yellow tape after a police shooting. Henry Redman | Wisconsin Examiner

The Milwaukee Police Department announced Wednesday that its own officers will now be assigned to accompany specialty police units from out of state after Columbus, Ohio police officers from a bicycle unit shot and killed a man near King Park on Tuesday. 

A group of 13 Columbus police officers were in the area holding a briefing when they saw Samuel Sharpe and another man having a fight in the street while Sharpe wielded a knife. Less than 20 seconds after seeing the fight, body camera footage of the incident shows, five of the officers fired at Sharpe, killing him. 

In the wake of the shooting, residents and local officials questioned why the Columbus officers were seven blocks from the security perimeter of the Republican National Convention. Milwaukee police leaders had promised ahead of the convention that out-of-state officers would not be tasked with interacting with Milwaukee residents. 

“[H]aving local police interacting with members of the community instead of strangers, however well-trained … is to be preferred,” Milwaukee Alderman Scott Spiker said in a Wednesday statement. “One might wonder whether a Milwaukee beat cop with knowledge of the homeless person encampment at King Park where Mr. Sharpe lived, and with familiarity with Mr. Sharpe himself and any potential mental health challenges he might have faced, might have behaved differently.”

On Wednesday, Milwaukee Police issued a press release acknowledging that prior to the convention, officials had stated that out-of-state police wouldn’t be assigned to “forward-facing” roles interacting with the community, but that specialty units such as the bike patrol officers from Columbus who shot Sharpe were not considered “forward-facing.” After the shooting, Milwaukee police officers will be embedded with specialty units operating in the city, according to MPD. 

“MPD has made adjustments at this time by adding MPD representation in bicycle units in an effort to best serve our community and its needs,” the release states. 

The Columbus unit had been assigned to demonstrations at the park the day before, the MPD statement adds. Columbus police officers wearing “dialogue team” vests had also monitored a Monday march and rally against the RNC near the convention site downtown. 

“MPD is handling all ‘regular calls.’ Outside agency bicycle officers would not respond to calls for service. MPD officers would respond to calls for service,” the MPD news release states. “At the time of the incident, the CPD bicycle unit officers were briefing and de-briefing the day’s events. CPD had responded to demonstrations in the area of 14th and Vliet the day prior. CPD’s response to this incident was not prompted by a call for service, but by officers’ observation of an armed individual threatening another unarmed person. Bicycle units are a specialty unit, assigned to tasks such as traffic control, demonstration control and surveillance of areas of concern. Bicycle units would not be considered interactive forward-facing units, as those officers on bicycles are best suited to use their bicycles as tools to navigate traffic and demonstrations.”

The convention security includes the hard security perimeter of buildings such as Fiserv Forum where the main convention stage is located and a soft perimeter covering the surrounding area. In the release, MPD declined to outline which agencies are assigned to the different  parts of the city, saying that disclosing specific assignments would pose a security risk. The release only stated that outside agencies have been assigned to patrol “areas that include the hard perimeter, the soft perimeter, and/or the area immediately surrounding the soft perimeter.”

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