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Off-duty officer shooting video to be released
Milwaukee Police Chief Jeffrey Norman said there is video of the incident, but it's unclear where it came from or what it shows.
MILWAUKEE - An off-duty Milwaukee police officer shot and killed an armed man after a traffic accident and altercation Thursday morning. MPD said one thing about what happened, while family members of the deceased say the opposite.
Video of shooting
The backstory:
What happened? Milwaukee Police Chief Jeffrey Norman said there is video of the incident, but it's unclear where it came from or what it shows.
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FOX6 News spent Thursday afternoon going door to door, looking for people who may have seen what happened or caught it on video. While that was not found, one man said bullets hit his home.
Everything unfolded on Mill Road between 47th Street and 49th Street. It's a residential area with homes and businesses nearby, including a bowling alley and a day care.
Off-duty Milwaukee police officer shoots, kills armed man
An off-duty Milwaukee police officer shot and killed a man after what investigators described as a "minor vehicle accident" on Thursday morning.
What's next:
The Milwaukee Police Department said video of the incident will be released within 15 days, which Norman said is standard operating procedure. It could be before then, too.
First, the department will let the family of the deceased see the video within 48 hours.
Police investigation
What they're saying:
MPD said the off-duty officer was on his way to work when it happened, and both drivers pulled over and got out of their vehicles.
While assessing the accident, MPD said the other driver – a 26-year-old man – pulled out a gun and hit the off-duty officers in the face with the weapon. The off-duty officer then drew his service weapon, and the two exchanged gunfire.
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Milwaukee police shooting, conflicting accounts
A Milwaukee police officer fatally shot a man after a traffic accident and altercation near 47th and Mill Road on Thursday, Oct. 9. Milwaukee police say one thing about the incident and family members of the deceased, Elijah Wilks, say the opposite.
"There was shots exchanged between both parties," Norman said. "There is video, very clear video, of this incident."
The 26-year-old man died at the scene. The off-duty officer was taken to a hospital for treatment of injuries sustained during the altercation and has since been released. No one else was injured.
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Alexander Ayala, president of the Milwaukee Police Association, said he visited the injured officer in the hospital.
"I saw him personally. He has injuries to his face. There was blood in his face," he said. "My officer did what he was trained to do. He defended himself, and then stopped the threat."
Family disagrees
What they're saying:
Loved ones identified the 26-year-old man who was killed as Elijah Wilks. Tensions are high after a morning filled with grief and confusion. Some say the police description of what happened does not tell the full story.
"Why did you kill him? Why did you shoot him?" said Cardell Bonslater, Wilks' stepfather. "It's not the truth at all. It's not the truth at all."
Unique, a friend of Wilks', said she was on FaceTime with him at the time – and claims he didn't hit anyone with a gun.
"They are not telling the truth. The story they posted is not the truth at all. Nobody got pistol whipped," she said. "Whatever injuries he has, any injuries that may have happened, did not come from Elijah. They were already so many feet away from each other."
The Source: Information in this post was provided, in part, by the Milwaukee Police Department and Milwaukee Police Association.