Milwaukee police shoot two at busy beachfront

Milwaukee, WI – At dusk on the evening of June 11, a Milwaukee police officer shot, in front of hundreds of beachgoers, two unarmed African Americans who were driving a vehicle down the lakefront. Both individuals were in a car that had been pulled over. When the police told them to get out of the car, they allegedly tried to drive away. Then, another police officer who happened to be walking by on foot fired around a dozen bullets into the windshield of the vehicle, hitting the driver and his girlfriend and causing them to crash into a nearby vehicle. There were hundreds of witnesses, with the shooting happening right next to the busiest beach in the city. A massive crowd quickly gathered and dozens of police were called to the scene. Within an hour, the police had cordoned off the street nearly a mile in each direction, and had cordoned off the streets on the bluffs overlooking the shooting scene.

People who tried to get to their cars on the beach were turned away by police and told that the entire area was an active crime scene. Groups of Black youth were harassed by the police, with police in riot gear patrolling the whole area.

At writing, both victims were in very critical condition at an area hospital being treated for multiple gunshot wounds. This follows a police killing of an unarmed African American man a week ago in the city.