Aaron Mak, Jacob Carpenter, and Ashley Luthern

Milwaukee

A standoff between police and an angry crowd turned violent Saturday night in the hours after a Milwaukee police officer shot and killed an armed suspect during a foot chase on the city's north side.

After an hours-long confrontation with officers, police reported at 10:15 p.m. that a gas station at N. Sherman Blvd. and W. Burleigh St. was set on fire. Police said firefighters could not for a time get close to the blaze because of gunshots.

Later, fires were started at businesses — including a BMO Harris Bank branch, a beauty supply company and O'Reilly Auto Parts stores — near N. 35th and W. Burleigh streets, a grim and emphatic Mayor Tom Barrett said. He spoke at a midnight news conference at the District 3 police station at N. 49th St. and W. Lisbon Ave.

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He and Common Council President Ashanti Hamilton pleaded with the public for calm. Barrett promised a strong police presence in coming days.

The mayor said some involved in the disturbances took to social media early in the evening to encourage others to come out and participate in trouble-making. He said many of them were young people, and he urged parents to keep tight reins on their children to avoid a repeat of Saturday night.

"Our police officers are doing everything they can to restore order," he said. But he said everyone needed to help restore calm.

"If you love your son, if you love your daughter, text them, call them, pull them by their ears, get them home."

The mayor said police had "shown an amazing amount of restraint" Saturday evening.

Hamilton said, "Our city is in turmoil tonight." He promised a full and open investigation into the the police-involved shooting.

"When we get information, we are going to share it with the public, please allow the process to work," he said.

At 2:20 a.m. Sunday, police tweeted that they were restoring order to the area and were reducing deployments.

Assistant Police Chief James Harpole said at least 200 people had gathered at the disturbances earlier. He said there were multiple gunshots over the course of the evening.

When the gas station was set ablaze, there were three people in the building and all got out safely, he said.

The news conference ended with Aldermen Russell W. Stamper II and Khalif Rainey delivering strongly worded statements about the disturbance springing from the frustrations of black Milwaukeeans and the problems they face.

Rainey, who represents the area where the man was shot by the officer and the disturbance occurred, was particularly pointed. He said Sherman Park had become “a powder keg” this summer, and ended his remarks by implying that downtown could be the site of disturbances if the issues facing African-Americans here not addressed.

“This entire community has sat back and witnessed how Milwaukee, Wis., has become the worst place to live for African-Americans in the entire country,” Rainey said. “Now this is a warning cry. Where do we go from here? Where do we go as a community from here?

“Do we continue – continue with the inequities, the injustice, the unemployment, the under-education, that creates these byproducts that we see this evening? … The black people of Milwaukee are tired. They’re tired of living under this oppression. This is their existence. This is their life. This is the life of their children.

“Now what has happened tonight may have not been right; I’m not justifying that. But no one can deny the fact that there’s problems, racial problems, here in Milwaukee, Wis., that have to be closely, not examined, but rectified. Rectify this immediately. Because if you don’t, this vision of downtown, all of that, you’re one day away. You’re one day away.”

Earlier in the evening, more than 100 people gathered near the scene of the shooting at N. 44th St. and W. Auer Ave. and at times pushed against a line of 20 to 30 officers, some of whom were in riot gear.

At one point, the officers got in their cars to leave and some in the crowd started smashing the windows and side of a squad car. Another vehicle was set on fire. As officers returned to the scene, this time with more in riot gear, as many as seven shots could be heard about 8:45 to 9 p.m.

The shots appeared to be fired in the air by someone in the crowd.

Soon thereafter, the crowd turned on and chased reporters and a photographer from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. One reporter was shoved to the ground and punched.

Police later tweeted that an officer was hit in the head with a brick that was thrown through a squad window. Police said the officer was being treated at a hospital.

At nearly 11 p.m., police tweeted that gunshots again were fired near N. 44th St. and W. Auer Ave.

City officials said three people had been arrested during the initial disturbance. Another disturbance developed at N. 35th and W. Burleigh streets.

The string of violence erupted not long after a woman who identified herself as family member of the dead man implored the people to leave the scene.

"We don't want anyone else to go to jail or get hurt," she told the crowd.

Some left, but many stayed as tensions built.

The shooting occurred Saturday afternoon.

City police officials said two officers stopped two suspects in a car about 3:30 p.m. The suspects then took off on foot. During the pursuit, a six-year veteran of the department shot and killed a 23-year-old Milwaukee resident, who was carrying a semiautomatic handgun, police said.

The officer was not hurt.

During his midnight news conference, Barrett said the officer pursuing the 23-year-old man ordered him to drop his gun. The man didn't and the officer fired several times, the mayor said.

The man was hit twice, once in the chest and once in the arm. He said police determined there were 23 rounds in the man's gun.

Barrett said the officer was wearing a body camera and his understanding was that the camera was operational during the incident.

Much earlier in the evening, shortly after the shooting, Milwaukee Police Assistant Chief Bill Jessup said at the scene that it wasn't immediately clear whether the suspect pointed the gun or shot at the officer.

"Those additional facts will come out in the coming days," Jessup said.

City police officials have not interviewed the officer, Jessup said. At the request of Milwaukee police, the Wisconsin Department of Justice's Division of Criminal Investigation will lead the investigation. A state law requires at least two investigators from an outside agency to lead fatal officer-involved shooting investigations.

"That officer had to make a split-second decision when the person confronted him with a handgun," Jessup said. "This is a risk they take every day on behalf of our community."

Jessup said he didn't immediately know why the officers stopped the suspects.

Police said the suspect had a "lengthy arrest record," though the specific crimes were not detailed. The suspect was carrying a handgun taken in a March burglary in Waukesha. The owner reported that 500 rounds of ammunition also were stolen.

The officer is 24 and assigned to District 7. He will be placed on administrative duty during the investigation and subsequent review by the district attorney's office.

The second suspect who fled on foot, also a 23-year-old man, was apprehended and is in custody, Jessup said.

The shooting occurred about one block northwest of the scene of a Friday evening homicide, and about four blocks west of a Saturday morning double homicide. Five people died in shooting-related homicides during a nine-hour stretch in the city on Friday night and Saturday morning.

"As everyone knows, this was a very, very violent 24 hours in the city of Milwaukee," Jessup said. "Our officers are out here taking risks on behalf of the community and making split-second decisions."

Early Sunday, the White issued the following statement: "This morning, the President was updated on the situation in Milwaukee by his Senior Advisor Valerie Jarrett, who had spoken with Mayor Barrett earlier in the day to offer the Administration's support for local authorities. The President asked to be kept updated on any new developments."

Nefataria Gordon said she knew the man who had been killed by the officer. "He was a nice, good person. He was really respected. That's why everyone came out. They're angry."

The clash comes after a series of tense episodes in Milwaukee involving residents and police, including one just before the Fourth of July weekend near Sherman Park.

In early July, a group of several dozen young people threw rocks and bottles, damaging windows of a gas station and a county transit bus near Sherman Park. Law enforcement beefed up their presence for several days there. Some activists said it was an intimidating presence. At the same time, the incidents also led to a surge in residents and local leaders promoting positive activity there.

The gas station, a BP, that was the scene of the July incident, was the station that burned Saturday night.

Regular protests also followed the fatal police shootings of Jay Anderson in Wauwatosa in 2016 and Dontre Hamilton in Milwaukee in 2014.

On the same day federal prosecutors announced they would not seek charges against the ex-officer who killed Hamilton, Milwaukee Police Chief Edward Flynn requested the U.S. Department of Justice review the Police Department.

The review, called a "collaborative reform initiative," is a voluntary process and a less adversarial option than a consent decree — formal monitoring through the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division resulting from a "pattern-and-practice" investigation.

More than 700 people packed the first listening session in the review process and described their experiences with Milwaukee police. Federal officials say the review will examine the department's recruitment, hiring, and personnel practices; community-oriented policing and problem solving; use of force and deadly force practices; citizen stop and search practices; and systems for supervision, accountability, learning, remediation, and discipline.

The review is still underway and an initial report expected to be released this fall.

The Coalition for Justice, a grass-roots organization that formed after the police shooting of Dontre Hamilton, urged people to gather at 8 a.m. Sunday at Sherman Park to "pray, clean and hit the streets."

Rick Romell and Crocker Stephenson of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report.