Milwaukee Police District 5 shooter eligible for conditional release
Milwaukee Police District 5 shooter eligible for conditional release
An officer who dodged bullets inside his police station reacts to a judge saying the shooter is eligible for release from a state mental hospital.
MILWAUKEE - An officer who dodged bullets inside his police station reacts to a judge saying the shooter is eligible for release from a state mental hospital.
February 2022 shooting
The backstory:
"My heart just dropped. It really did because she knew what we went through because she watched the videos," said Steven Holmblad, a retired Milwaukee Police Department officer who survived the shooting.
That Milwaukee police officer had to duck for cover and was nearly hit in February 2022.
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The courts found Darreon Parker-Bell opened fire inside Milwaukee Police District 5 in the Harambee neighborhood.
Darreon Parker-Bell (past court footage)
Court ruling
The backstory:
In 2023, Milwaukee County Judge David Feiss found Parker-Bell not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect. The judge committed Parker-Bell to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services for 30 years. Now, three years later, Judge Nidhi Kashyap says the shooter is eligible for conditional release. She ordered the state prepare a plan for the release, including what should be the treatment and services and who is responsible for it.
What they're saying:
"Ludicrous. I was upset. The fact that this person can commit a crime, go to District Five, shoot and try to kill police officers, civilian workers, and there was a person in the lobby that's just a regular citizen and put all those peoples’ lives in danger, it is ridiculous that this person is getting out only after being confined after four years," Alexander Ayala, president of the Milwaukee Police Association, said.
Milwaukee Police District 5 shooter candidate for conditional release
The man convicted of opening fire inside the Milwaukee Police District 5 lobby in 2022 is now a candidate for conditional release.
An attorney who didn’t handle this case, but has overseen cases involving NGI (not guilty by reason of insanity), explained a typical timeline.
"It’s very common actually in NGI cases that a person will be evaluated after that first year. Reports will be drafted by examining psychologists, and then the judge will make a decision, so it actually is fairly common that people are released in a relatively reasonable fashion from the institution," attorney Anthony Cotton said.
"It feels really fast. It feels really quick to a lot of people, including me. But at the same time, if the reports, I don't know what the reports said, but if the reports all conclude that he's no longer dangerous, the judge has an obligation to follow the law. I mean, we want judges to follow the law. The law says once a person is deemed not dangerous, if they are NGI, they are to be released. That's the law. So I'm assuming the judge followed the law, and we may disagree with it, but that's not a critique of the judge," Cotton added.
"This cannot just go like this and let this individual get out. He's a menace to society," the police union’s Ayala said.
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"I don't know. You don't know if he stays on a straight and narrow. Maybe he will be fine. But generally speaking, I have never seen that," Holmblad said.
The judge set a hearing for December 7, 2026, to discuss the conditional release plan.
After this police station shooting – bulletproof glass was installed at all seven police stations. The Milwaukee Police Foundation and the city paid for it.
Portions of this article were formatted using A.I. FOX6’s Jason Calvi and an editor reviewed it for accuracy and tone prior to publishing.
The Source: Information in this story was gathered from retired officer Steven Holmblad, Tony Cotton, the Milwaukee Police Association, Wisconsin courts records, and previous FOX6 News reporting.