Ohio police officers providing security at the Republican convention fatally shoot a man

CNN
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Ohio state police officers in Milwaukee to provide security for the Republican National Convention shot and killed a man on Tuesday who local authorities said was carrying knives in both hands and attempting to attack another man.

Milwaukee Police Chief Jeffrey Norman told reporters that officers from Columbus, Ohio, saw a man with two knives involved in an altercation with an unarmed man and intervened.

The suspect refused to comply with orders to drop the knives and attacked the other man, the police chief said, whereupon five police officers opened fire and killed the attacker.

“Someone’s life was in danger,” Norman said at the press conference. “These officers, who are not from this area, took it upon themselves to act today to save someone’s life.”

Two knives were found at the scene, Norman said. Authorities believe the initial altercation had nothing to do with the conference.

In a statement, Columbus Police Chief Elaine Bryant said the shooting occurred in the outer security perimeter of Congress, within the zone for which her officers were responsible.

The chief also released video from the body-worn camera of an officer involved in the shooting.

The 31-second video, which is partially blurred, begins with officers debriefing before turning their attention to an altercation between two men nearby.

As the video shows, they immediately point their guns at the man, run toward the confrontation and yell at him to drop his weapon.

As the video shows, the attacker appears to be walking toward the other man as officers fire their weapons and the man falls to the ground.

The fatal shooting sparked anger and criticism from local activists.

At an evening press conference called by people demanding police accountability, activist Alan Chavoya said: “This RNC is not even two days old and we already have a victim. How is that possible? And as always, there are no answers from the MPD. No transparency, no accountability.”

Some people who said they witnessed the shooting said the man did not have a knife. “If he didn’t have a knife, you should have attacked him or something. Why did you have to shoot him?” said one person who gave only his first name.

“We want answers. We want to know why an out-of-state police officer was in this area in the first place,” Pastor Radontae Ashford of Infinite Church said at the press conference. “There are only two reasons … why any of us living in Milwaukee would even be in this area, either to do something helpful or to do something harmful.”

In a statement, the American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin called for a “comprehensive and transparent” investigation into the shooting incidents.

“More than 4,000 additional police officers are in Milwaukee for the RNC, and we have long feared that this heavy police presence could increase the risk of fatal encounters with police, particularly by officers from out of state who do not know and have no responsibility to our community,” said the statement from Executive Director Melinda Brennan. “We extend our condolences to the friends and family of the person killed.”