A Milwaukee police officer is being treated for serious injuries after being shot while seated in the front seat of his squad car about 2 a.m. Sunday, police said in a news release.
Officers were responding to domestic violence calls in the 3500 block of S. 17th St. In each of the two incidents the suspect was no longer on the scene when police arrived.
About 2 a.m. the suspect approached a squad car on foot and fired into the car, striking the officer several times, police said. About 2:30 a.m., investigating officers heard a single gun shot in the 3500 block of S. 17th St. and found a man dead of a suspected self-inflicted gunshot wound.
The deceased suspect is a 20-year old West Allis man with an arrest record that includes two prior felonies. He is the suspect of the domestic violence incidents for which the police were originally called. It is believed that this person is the suspect who shot the officer, pending ballistics tests.
The officer who was shot is a 31-year-old man with 13 years of experience. He was taken to a hospital and is being treated for nonlife threatening but serious injuries.
In response to the shooting, the Milwaukee Police Association made a request for routine two-person officer teams in Milwaukee.
“With a partner seated next to our cop today would the outcome have been better… I believe it would have been,” the association said in a written statement. “Two-man squads are essential in the ever changing high-risk environment.”
According to the association, the police officer is a husband and father.
“The officer that was seriously injured late night/early this morning, is a good cop that has pledged himself to service of community,” the Milwaukee Police Association wrote in a statement about the shooting.
“This incident will soon be forgotten by the community,” the association wrote in its statement. “However for the family of the officer, and he himself, this night will replay… replay.”
