Bodycam Shows Rooftop Shooting of Man by Milwaukee Officers

Warning: Footage is graphic

A body camera video released by the Milwaukee Police Department shows an officer shooting a man on a rooftop, and according to reports, he had no gun in his hand.

Jerry Smith Jr., 19, said he was unarmed when police shot him twice, WISN-TV reported.

“That moment when I got shot I felt like I was going to die,” Smith said, according to the report. “OK, I ran, but he, the officer, scared the hell out of me, man. He got off that bike grabbing his gun, grabbed the gun. Cause I matched the description of someone having a gun, I ran.”

Smith survived the shooting, but he underwent several surgeries and will suffer partial paralysis in his right leg, the Journal Sentinel reported.

“People just need to see this,” Daniel Storm, a private investigator working on Smith’s case, said.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Kent Lovern, however, said in June that the two officers involved were justified in using deadly force because they thought Smith was armed or was going for a gun. No gun was found, and Smith, who doesn’t have a criminal record, wasn’t charged with a crime in the incident, the paper reported.

In the video, an officer says, “He doesn’t have a gun in his hand, but he was hiding behind the AC.”

As the officers climb the stairs to approach the man, he’s ordered to put his hands in the air and turn around. He puts his hands up to the sides and continues facing the two officers.

Then he leans to get on the ground. The officers haven’t yet made the command. Lovern said the officers thought Smith had a gun hidden behind the AC unit.

An officer then fires at Smith. The other officer thought Smith opened fire and also shot Smith.

Violent Crime Down in 2017

In September 2018, the FBI said Americans committed fewer violent and property crimes in 2017, according to statistics. The violent crime rate—including offenses such as murder, robbery, and aggravated assault—dropped by almost one percent and is still about 4 percent above the 2014 rate. The murder rate dropped by 0.7 percent.

“After historic increases in violent crime in 2015 and 2016, we are beginning to see encouraging signs,” Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a statement at the time. “But our work is not done. While we have made progress, violent crime and drug trafficking continue to plague our communities and destroy the lives of innocent, law-abiding Americans.”

Of the estimated 17,284 murders in 2017, more than half occurred in larger cities—with populations of more than 100,000.

There are fewer than 300 such cities in the United States, and while they account for less than 30 percent of the country’s population, many of them contribute far beyond their share to national crime rates and have done so for years, even decades.

While the national murder rate inched down to 5.3 per 100,000 residents, it spiked by 15 percent in Philadelphia, to a rate of more than 20 per 100,000 residents. Columbus, Ohio, saw a massive 54 percent murder rate increase, reaching nearly 16.3 per 100,000 residents.

Reuters contributed to this report