Police officers in Milwaukee shot and killed a man about a mile from the Republican national convention on Tuesday, authorities and witnesses of the shooting said.
Security arrangements for the convention have come under the microscope since Saturday, when Donald Trump, the former president and Republican nominee for president in November’s election, was the subject of an assassination attempt at a rally in Pennsylvania.
The officers involved in Tuesday’s shooting were from Columbus, Ohio, a police union statement said, adding that no officers were injured. Body-camera footage released on Tuesday night showed the man, who was identified by a family member as Samuel Sharpe Jr, brandishing a knife at another man before he was shot by officers.
Neighbors said the man killed was a regular at a homeless encampment in the neighborhood. The man did not appear to have any connection to the convention, or any plans to go closer.
In the aftermath of the shooting, activists and neighbors responded with outrage at Sharpe’s killing and the presence of out-of-state officers apparently patrolling a Milwaukee neighborhood.
“Milwaukee has blood on its hands,” said Ryan Clancy, a state representative from Milwaukee. “This is not near the RNC. The police should not be here.”
About 4,000 officers from other states and cities are in Wisconsin for the convention. Columbus, Ohio, provided a “police dialogue team” to work on demonstrations.
The Milwaukee fire and police commission suspended the city’s policy of releasing body-camera footage within 15 days of a police shooting for the duration of the Republican conference. Alan Chavoya, outreach chair of the Milwaukee Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, a group that lobbied against the suspension of the body-camera policy, decried the Ohio officers for “coming here and treating our people this way”.
“I was shocked,” said Sonia, a resident of the apartment complex adjacent to the site of the shooting, who spoke to the Guardian but asked to be referred to by her first name for privacy. “The police let people in the area know before the [convention] we wouldn’t have to deal with out-of-town law enforcement, but here you go.”
Citing law enforcement sources, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel said the shooting happened near North 14th Street and West Vliet Street, about a mile outside the Republican national convention security perimeter.
Linda Sharpe, who identified herself as the cousin of the man killed, said she wanted answers. “He had a dog, he loved people and he loved animals,” she said.
