A Milwaukee police officer was shot near North 21st Street and West St. Paul Avenue one day after sheriff's deputy was injured in a shooting
A Milwaukee police officer and another man were shot Thursday evening in the Menomonee Valley.
According to Milwaukee Police Chief Jeffrey Norman, an officer was dispatched to the 2100 block of West St. Paul Avenue to check on a man slumped over in a car. The officer then encountered the man who police say appeared to flee and showed a gun.
The man and the officer began to exchange gunfire and struck each other. After the gunfire, the man entered the officer’s squad car and drove away. The man collided with another motorist in the 1700 block of West Clybourn Street and fled on foot from the crash. He was arrested in the 600 block of North 17th Street.
Following the incident, Norman said, members of the public administered aid to the officer.
“I would also like to thank the community members that stopped and remained on the scene to help our wounded officer. And I mean that, that was a very appreciative moment for our officer,” Norman said.
Police say they discovered the man’s gun inside the officer’s squad car.
More: Off-duty Milwaukee police officer shot multiple times in Third Ward robbery attempt
Police describe the officer as a 26-year-old male, with over seven years' experience. The suspect is a 22-year-old man.
The suspect and officer were transported to a hospital with nonfatal injuries. The officer was shot in the chest, stomach and shoulder, police said. The driver of the vehicle that the suspect crashed with was also transported to the hospital with nonfatal injuries.
The shooting occurred just down the street from the original Sobelmans Pub and Grill location, a Milwaukee staple.
Sam Leighton, 21, said he and his friend Delano Lomibao, 19, pulled up to Sobelmans sometime after 6 p.m.
They said they saw a police squad car driving east, toward them and the restaurant, but it stopped short of them and turned around to head west.
They said the squad car then turned around again to face east and stopped behind a parked car some distance away on West Saint Paul Avenue. The squad car turned on its searchlights and aimed it at the parked car.
Leighton said the squad's emergency lights were never activated, so he went inside the restaurant as Lomibao parked the car. Minutes later, Leighton said he heard five or six gunshots.
Less than an hour earlier, Christian Almonte, a 26-year-old Milwaukee County sheriff's deputy, was released from Froedtert Hospital after being treated for multiple gunshot wounds.
A 19-year-old man, who later killed himself, shot at Almonte as officers searched the Johnson's Woods neighborhood early Wednesday morning for two other men who ran from a traffic stop. Almonte was struck in both arms and his torso.
On Jan. 13, an off-duty Milwaukee police detective was shot and injured when he intervened in an attempted carjacking in the city's Third Ward.
Acting Mayor Cavalier Johnson spoke after Norman at the briefing Thursday evening and railed against people’s access to guns. “There are too many people, in this community, who have too easy access to guns, who should not have them in the first place. … I need for this community to wake up to the issue of gun violence,” he said.
He spoke about getting assistance from the state on the issue of gun violence. Speaking to his "partners in the Capitol," Johnson said, "We need your help here."
Johnson noted this being the third law enforcement officer to be shot in two weeks, saying that it doesn’t just affect law enforcement but people young and old, pointing to the 9-year-old boy that was shot on Jan. 1.
The mayor spoke of the wave of violence in the city, whether it be officer-involved shootings or the rise of homicides to begin this year. He pleaded with the public to speak up by calling the police via its anonymous tip line. He said if you don't want to call the police then call the Milwaukee Office of Violence Prevention.
The Milwaukee Police Department Homicide Division is leading the investigation into the shooting. The officer will be placed on administrative duty, per policy. Criminal charges against the 22-year-old will be referred to the Milwaukee County District Attorney's Office in the coming days.
Contact Sophie Carson at (414) 223-5512 or scarson@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @SCarson_News.
Our subscribers make this reporting possible. Please consider supporting local journalism by subscribing to the Journal Sentinel at jsonline.com/deal.
DOWNLOAD THE APP: Get the latest news, sports and more
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee police officer shot, injured at North 21st & St. Paul Ave
