Police shooting with one dead near Republican National Convention angers Milwaukee residents

MILWAUKEE — About five blocks outside the outer security perimeter of the Republican National Convention, police shot and killed a person in Milwaukee on Tuesday, officials said.

Members of the Columbus, Ohio, police department were involved in the shooting, which occurred in their assigned area of ​​operation, the city’s Fraternal Order of Police said in a statement. Thousands of officers from several jurisdictions are in Milwaukee providing additional security at the convention, which began Monday and ends Thursday.

Columbus police officials, the Milwaukee mayor’s chief of staff and a spokeswoman for the convention’s joint command center all said there was no evidence the shooting was related to the convention itself.

Milwaukee residents quickly converged on the scene of the shooting, many angry that a police department that was in town for the rally was involved in the incident. Dozens of police officers were also on the scene.

Kenneth Johnson, a volunteer with Friends Without Shelter, said the area is known among locals for its homeless people sleeping in tents on a nearby property – and questioned what an official from another state was doing in the area.

“They should not have jurisdiction to be in this area. This is not near the zones,” Johnson said. “These are tent settlements, they should not be here.”

The Columbus Police Department has drawn a lot of attention for its Milwaukee-based special unit dedicated to improving police-community relations and played a visible role in directing Monday’s largely uneventful protests.

The shooting occurred near King Park, about a mile from the convention center, where a small group of protesters had gathered Monday before marching. That demonstration was followed by dozens of Columbus police officers wearing blue vests emblazoned with the words “Columbus Police Dialogue.”

The Milwaukee County Coroner’s Office said an adult male was shot and an autopsy was scheduled for Wednesday.

Milwaukee police did not respond to an email seeking further details about Tuesday’s shooting.