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A former Wisconsin police officer who faced felony charges for shooting an unarmed Black man in the back is now collecting more than $57,000 a year tax-free via duty disability insurance according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Devon Kramemer could get the payments for the rest of her life. Kraemer wasn’t convicted of aggravated battery because the jury couldn’t agree on a verdict during her February 2018 trial. Then two months later, Milwaukee County Attorney John Chisholm and his office wouldn’t retry the case.

In August 2018 Deer Police Chief Mike Kass said Kraemer had officially resigned after being on administrative leave since the shooting. However, he didn’t reveal that the 30-year-old had applied for duty disability, saying the stress of the shooting and its aftermath had left her unable to work as a police officer. According to the newspaper, the application was approved by the state’s Employee Trust in the fall of 2018.

Kraemer’s benefits were revealed in court records filed in a civil rights lawsuit filed by the man Kraemer shot, Manuel Burnley Jr.

Duty disability insurance or retirement supply income replacement for police and firefighters who can no longer do their jobs because of injuries suffered while working. According to Burnley’s lawyers, the Brown Deer Police Department never completed an internal investigation of the shooting. Although prosecutors believed it was criminal conduct.

The shooting took place on March 14, 2016, Kraemer and another officer took Burnley off a Milwaukee County bus after the driver had stopped and waved the officers over and complained that Burnley had been loud, profane and upsetting to her during a dispute about his fare.

During the struggle, Kraemer fired one shot between Burnley’s shoulder blades.

Part of the incident was captured by a camera on the bus. All three were on the ground when the officers attempted to handcuff Burnley. During the struggle, Kraemer fired one shot between Burnley’s shoulder blades.After the shooting, the officer commented about Burnley’s size 5-foot-7, 370-pounds but didn’t say she feared for her life.

During her trial, she testified that she felt Burnley was resisting and that she felt “alone” in the struggle. Kraemer she feared Burnley was reaching for his waistband and perhaps a gun, and then shot him. Kraemer’s partner Michael Leeman testified that he didn’t see a gun on Burnley or heard him or anyone on the bus claim he had one. Leeman also said he didn’t hear any threats from Burnley or see him attack the officers.

Burnley was on his way from his job at an auto transmissions shop when he was taken off the bus. The now 28-year-old said he wasn’t resisting the officers and expecting only to be tased when he noticed they were having a hard time handcuffing him. Burnley was hospitalized for 12 days and lost part of a lung due to the injuries he suffered. To this day the bullet remains in his body. He has since sued Kraemer and the Village of Brown Deer in March.

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