police

Two Republican lawmakers introduced legislation Wednesday designed to reform police use-of-force policies and investigations, including proposals that would ban training on chokeholds, punish municipalities that defund police departments and create a board to investigate officer-involved deaths and injuries.

Talks to determine the future of Milwaukee's former police chief after a judge ruled he was improperly demoted ended Monday without a resolution.

Former Chief Alfonso Morales' attorney, Franklyn Gimbel, told The Associated Press that “we were not close to any reasonable settlement terms,” but he said the nature of any settlement, including whether the goal is to have Morales return to work, hasn't been determined yet.

Updated at 2:02 p.m. CT

Milwaukee Bucks guard Sterling Brown and the Milwaukee city attorney have agreed to a revised $750,000 settlement of a lawsuit Brown filed after getting taken to the ground, shocked with a Taser and arrested during an encounter with police in 2018.

Updated Saturday at 11:06 a.m. CT

A man sought in a shooting that wounded two Wisconsin police officers at a traffic stop in the Delafield area has been arrested. The suspect, identified by the Fargo Police Department as 23-year-old Nathanael Benton, is also wanted in North Dakota for attempted murder.

Two others were also arrested, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

A Milwaukee police officer who pleaded not guilty to reckless homicide in the death of a man during a fight at the off-duty officer’s home has resigned.

Police Sgt. Sheronda Grant confirmed Tuesday evening that Michael Mattioli had stepped down from the department. Mattioli had been on paid suspension following the death of Joel Acevedo last April.

Earlier Tuesday, Mattioli entered a not guilty plea during an arraignment held virtually in Milwaukee County Circuit Court.

President Donald Trump will travel to Kenosha, Wisconsin, on Tuesday, amid fury over the police shooting of Jacob Blake in the back, which left the 29-year-old Black man paralyzed.

White House spokesman Judd Deere told reporters aboard Air Force One on Saturday that Trump will be meeting with law enforcement officers and “surveying” some of the damage from recent protests that turned destructive.

Roughly a thousand people gathered Saturday in Kenosha for a march and rally against police violence, about a week after an officer shot Jacob Blake in the back and left the 29-year-old Black man paralyzed.

Marchers chanted “No justice, no peace!” and “Seven bullets, seven days” — a reference to the number of times Blake was shot on Sunday. Those leading the march carried a banner reading “Justice for Jacob” as they made their way toward the Kenosha County Courthouse, where several speakers encouraged demonstrators to vote for change in November.

In the span of 48 hours, two Black men in U.S. cities hundreds of miles apart were shot by police in episodes that set off a national conversation about the need for officers to open fire on people walking away from them.

The Kenosha police union on Friday offered the most detailed accounting to date on officers' perspective of the moments leading up to police shooting Jacob Blake seven times in the back, saying he had a knife and fought with officers, putting one of them in a headlock and shrugging off two attempts to stun him.

The statement from Brendan Matthews, attorney for the Kenosha Professional Police Association, goes into more detail than anything that's been released by the Wisconsin Department of Justice, which is investigating.

Updated Monday 8:35 a.m. CT

Kenosha police shot and wounded a Black man, apparently in the back, after responding to a call about a domestic dispute, setting off a night of protests and unrest in which officers fired tear gas and demonstrators apparently hurled objects and set fire to parked cars.

>>Find all of WUWM's Kenosha protest coverage here.

Milwaukee's former police chief is seeking damages of $625,000 from the city following his recent demotion, a reduction in rank he did not accept.

Alfonso Morales filed a damage claim against the city Thursday for breach of contract, denial of due process and loss of reputation.

The Fire and Police Commission demoted Morales to captain on Aug. 6, about two weeks after giving him a long list of directives with the threat of discipline or termination if he failed to complete them.

Updated at 10:30 a.m. CT

A Black Lives Matter protest in Wauwatosa Friday night featured a tense standoff between dozens of protesters and law enforcement from several communities after one of the protesters was taken into custody, apparently on an unrelated charge.

The incident took place at 70th St. and Aetna Ct., just north of Wisconsin Avenue and near the home of Wauwatosa Mayor Dennis McBride.

Milwaukee's former police chief, who was demoted to captain in part for using tear gas against protesters demonstrating over George Floyd’s death, has chosen to retire instead of staying with the department.

The city's Fire and Police Commission voted unanimously last week to demote Chief Alfonso Morales.

Milwaukee activist Annia Leonard wants a safe community without police, and she draws from experience when imagining that: like the time a conflict at her grandmother’s house ended peacefully in a garden — without anyone in handcuffs.