Columbus police shooting knife-wielding man in Milwaukee angers BLM protesters

MILWAUKEE, Wis. — BLM protesters gathered in King Park on Tuesday evening to express their anger toward the city of Milwaukee and the Columbus, Ohio, police department after its officers shot and killed a knife-wielding man who was actively fighting another man.

The Columbus Police Department is one of many police departments that are in Milwaukee to provide extra security for the Republican National Convention. Around 1:00 p.m. on Tuesday, Columbus bicycle patrol officers noticed two men were in the street fighting each other.

Released body-camera footage shows the officers racing toward the fight, realizing one of the men had a knife. The officers drew their handguns and ordered the man multiple times to drop his two knives. The assailant refused and started to lunge at the other man. That is when the officers opened fire, killing him. The shooting took place almost a mile away from where the RNC is being hosted.

'Blood is on the city's hands. Blood is on MPD's hands.'

The March on the RNC, which organized the main protest against Trump on Monday, called for its followers to show up near the scene of the incident to demand that the extra police leave their city. Protesters identified the deceased man as Samuel Sharpe, a homeless man who lived at a nearby encampment. Protesters said the police were in the wrong because they were away from the RNC and did not know the people in the neighborhood.

Alan Chavoya, spokesman for the Milwaukee Alliance Against Racist and Political Oppression, led the protest, saying that while he loved Milwaukee, Tuesday's shooting showed the city does not love the people back.

"You can see Columbus, Ohio, officers with their guns drawn over 30 feet away from where Samuel Sharpe was. You mean to tell me they could see the supposed knife that Samuel Sharpe had ... from 30 feet away? And before they could even confirm it, he already had to have his gun drawn," Chavoya said.

"We were over eight blocks away from the barricade of the RNC. How does the Milwaukee Police, how does the Milwaukee city allow officers from Columbus, Ohio, to be unattended, unguarded, off their leash here so far into Milwaukee? We told them this would happen," Chavoya continued. "Blood is on the city's hands. Blood is on MPD's hands."

After lighting candles and hearing from a few speakers, the small group of protesters marched around King Park. The crowd stopped and held a moment of silence at the spot where the shooting took place.

The Columbus Dispatch reports the five officers who fired their guns have been sent back to Columbus, but the remaining officers are still in Milwaukee for their security mission.

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