Why were Columbus police officers in Milwaukee? What to know about RNC security
Five Columbus police officers are headed home from Milwaukee after they shot at and killed a homeless man who was wielding knives, bodycam footage revealed.
The officers were part of a group of about 40 Columbus cops assisting with security at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee this week.
Brian Steel, president of the Fraternal Order of Police in Columbus, said two squads of bicycle officers and a dialogue team were attending the convention. Members of the dialogue team, which works to facilitate protests while avoiding violent conflict, were not involved in the shooting, multiple sources said.
In an interview about two hours before Tuesday's shooting, Steel said the Columbus officers had been sent to Milwaukee convention to help with crowd control and general security.
"The biggest reason the FOP gets involved was, let's just say, God forbid, one of them shot somebody ... well, we would obviously represent them," Steel said. "We have coordinated with FOP attorneys in Milwaukee, because obviously our attorneys are here. So if something was to happen, we would have attorneys that basically are helping us out."
The Milwaukee Police Department requested assistance from departments around the country, Steel said. The request was made prior to Saturday's attempted assassination of former president and current Republican nominee Donald Trump.
Steel said such requests are pretty common. Should Chicago Police Department make a similar request for the Democratic National Convention on Aug. 19-22, local cops will likely be there too, Steel said before Tuesday's events.
"We've done RNCs and DNCs before, and we've done the inaugurations down in D.C. before," he said. "We'll probably do it again, right?"
Columbus Police spokeswoman Nicole Jaros said Columbus police officers are paid by the federal government for their work at the Republican National Convention.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Columbus police shooting in Milwaukee: Why were cops there for RNC?
