Milwaukee police shoot two suspects after chase. 19-year-old man in critical condition

Milwaukee police officers shot and injured two men ages 19 and 22 who they said fled after an attempted traffic stop and carried one gun.

The 19-year-old is in critical condition, and the 22-year-old has minor injuries, Milwaukee Police Chief Jeffrey Norman said at a news conference Thursday morning. Both are being treated at a hospital.

Two officers, a 26-year-old man with eight years of experience and a 27-year-old man with two years of experience, will be placed on administrative duty, a routine practice while the investigation is carried out, Norman said.

At 3:17 a.m., at North 91st Street and West Silver Spring Drive, Norman said, police tried to stop a vehicle that was reported stolen and wanted in connection with a Wednesday shooting. When the driver did not stop, a chase began.

Police deployed stop sticks near West Hampton Avenue and North 68th Street, about two miles southeast of the attempted traffic stop. The fleeing car hit the sticks but did not stop until it crashed a mile down the road, at North 51st Street and West Hampton Avenue, Norman said.

The suspects ran from the car, and officers continued after them.

"Early information indicates that one of the suspects was carrying a visible firearm and refused to drop the weapon despite multiple verbal commands from the police," Norman said.

It was not immediately clear whether the suspects fired any shots at police or pointed the gun at them. Norman said that at 3:22 a.m., "multiple shots were fired in the 4800 block of North 51st Street."

Officers did fire shots and struck both suspects, Norman said. Investigators found one gun at the scene.

The officers were not injured, Norman said. Asked whether the suspects pointed the gun at the officers, he said he did not know and that it was under investigation.

Norman said the vehicle was wanted in connection with a shooting that was reported on the 400 block of North 29th Street Wednesday. In a brief press statement before Thursday morning, the department said a suspect fired shots into a vehicle at 1:55 p.m., injuring a 20-year-old.

The victim was hospitalized with nonfatal injuries and police sought unknown suspects, the statement said.

Norman said the department would release a community briefing video – which usually includes limited and edited body camera footage with narration from police officials – about Thursday's police shooting. The department generally tries to release such videos within 45 days, although it has not always met that goal.

Neighbors who were making their way to work or to school with their kids Thursday morning told the Journal Sentinel said they hadn’t heard the commotion in the middle of the night.

A resident of the area, who only wanted to be identified as Carl, walked from his home to the crime scene and looked on as investigators and police vehicles surrounded a restaurant at the corner North 52nd Street and West Hampton Avenue that he frequents.

He said reckless driving, sometimes with police in pursuit, is a common occurrence in the area. The intersection of North 60th Street and West Hampton Avenue, just a half-mile to the west, is where he’s seen many crashes.

“There’s a lot of dangerous driving here,” he said. “This does not surprise me.”

Carl identified reckless driving, access to firearms and to a lesser extent, drugs, as problems in the area, with poverty as the root cause. He said residents generally feel pressure to not speak with police or the media.

“That’s something that needs to stop,” he said. “The lack of communication I feel like makes people unaware about all the problems in the area.”

How to contact police

Anyone with information about the North 29th Street shooting is asked to contact Milwaukee police at 414-935-7360. To remain anonymous, call Crime Stoppers at 414-224-Tips or use the P3 Tips app.

The Milwaukee Area Investigative Team is investigating Thursday's police shooting and the Waukesha Police Department is the lead agency.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Waukesha police at 262-524-3831.

Contact Elliot Hughes at elliot.hughes@jrn.com or 414-704-8958. Follow him on Twitter @elliothughes12.