MILWAUKEE, WI (WSAU) – Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett wants body camera video footage of the shooting death of Sylville Smith in August to be released. He made the comments after former Milwaukee Police Officer Dominique Heaggan-Brown was charged in the incident yesterday.
Barrett has been pushing for the footage to be made public since the incident this summer, and says he has not seen it himself.
The State Department of Justice, which investigated the shooting, had said earlier that the video would not be made public until their probe is complete. They also say the video should be viewed “in the totality of other evidence”. There is also video of part of the incident from a squad car dash-cam. Some of the video does not have the corresponding audio because of a malfunction.
The charging document says Smith had a gun at the time the incident began. The charges against Heaggan-Brown center on the second shot that he fired during the confrontation. The first round fired by the officer was said to be justified. The charges are passed on the video from the officer’s body camera.
Heaggan-Brown was fired from Milwaukee PD in October after being charged with an unrelated sexual assault. That alleged assault happened two days after the shooting. He has not gone to trial yet on those separate charges.
The MetroSource news wire contributed to this report.
