SandyMaloneMilwaukee, WI – Police ended a 10-hour long standoff on Wednesday when their SWAT team busted into an apartment to take down an armed suspect (video below).
Milwaukee police officers responded to an apartment at about 12 noon on Wednesday after a man became enraged at family members and fired a gun inside his home, WITI reported.
Once on the scene, officers talked with the man, and tried to get him to leave the building peacefully while police began to evacuate the residents of other apartments in his building. Those residents were not allowed to return to their homes until the middle of the night.
Police said trained crisis negotiators talked with the man for longer than 10 hours before the SWAT team made entrance to his apartment, but eventually he broke off contact, WITI reported.
“Clearly we can’t have him stay there; can’t let people go back to their homes because he was a danger to society. And it’s our job to make sure he isn’t that danger to society and take him into custody,” Milwaukee Police Lieutenant Kristin Felsman said at a press briefing.
On Thursday, police released bodycam video from the incident on April 25 that showed SWAT officers making entry to the apartment with their shields up in front of them.
Before they breached the door, the man can be heard yelling and screaming.
As soon as SWAT entered the room, the video showed the man raced across the room toward the kitchen, stopping to face police in the threshold. There, he extended his arm, and fired a shot, before continuing into the kitchen.
Police returned fire, and the man dropped to the floor in the kitchen.
The man continued to reach for his weapon and ignored police commands after he was down, the video showed.
Neither the suspect nor any officers were injured in the gunfight; however, one of the suspect’s bullets took a chunk out of an officer’s ballistic shield.
“I didn’t know at the time the shot was fired if I were struck or if the shield was struck. My hand was stinging a little. We train to stay in the fight. We moved in and finished the job,” Milwaukee Police Officer Robert Wilkinson said at a media availability on Thursday.
Police said they believed the suspect was having a mental health crisis at the time of the incident.
The suspect’s family told WITI that he’s not a violent person.
You can see the video of the incident below. NOTE: It’s dark at first but lights up about 20 seconds in: