UPDATE: An off-duty Milwaukee Police detective was shot multiple times, near Water and Buffalo Streets around 2 p.m., Thursday, Jan. 13, while attempting to stop an attempted robbery.
In a press conference Thursday, Milwaukee Police Chief Jeffrey Norman said that the suspect had attempted, but failed, to steal from a female driver, a vehicle that was occupied with three children.
The suspect began to leave the scene.
The female driver found a cellphone around her car and went into a nearby business. The suspect then followed the female inside and attempted to rob her.
A 37-year-old off-duty Milwaukee police detective, with seven years of service intervened, identified himself and attempted to detain the suspect when a struggle started. The suspect produced a firearm and fired shots at the off-duty officer, striking him multiple times. The suspect then fled the scene. The detective returned fire, however, it is believed he did not strike anyone.
The suspect fled in a vehicle that was later observed near 27th and State Street. Officers attempted to stop the vehicle. A pursuit was initiated which ended in the 3000 block of N. 30th.
Multiple suspects fled the vehicle on foot. A 17-year-old and an 18-year-old were taken into custody.
The detective suffered life-threatening injuries in the shooting and was taken to an area hospital where he is in stable condition.
Multiple sources tell Wisconsin Right Now that an off-duty Milwaukee police detective was shot downtown while off duty. The detective was trying to stop a carjacking, sources say. The officer is in stable condition, sources say, and a gun was recovered.
At 3 p.m., we heard Milwaukee police were pursuing a possible suspect vehicle, which was traveling more than 90 miles per hour near Vliet Street. We heard the suspect was in a vehicle stolen recently in Menomonee Falls, and that the high-speed pursuit may have turned into a foot chase. Two suspects are in custody, we were told at 3:10 p.m. A third fled on foot and is being sought. Our sources say the suspect(s) may have tried to carjack the off-duty detective.
We are hearing the shooting occurred at Water and Buffalo streets on January 13, 2022 in the city’s Third Ward. The details are still coming in. We have the detective’s name, but we aren’t printing it without official MPD release because family may not be notified. He was taken to Froedtert hospital.
One of our sources said that, preliminarily, the suspect might have been involved in a carjacking downtown when the officer intervened and was shot. The officer is awake and breathing, but his blood-pressure was low as he was being worked on, and the officer’s condition is not clear. We heard he was shot twice in the stomach. All of this information is preliminary as the story was just breaking. We also heard that the officer is an MPD detective who intervened in an armed robbery.
“Media staging regarding a critical incident is on the southwest corner of E. St. Paul Ave. and N. Water St. Additional details will be provided shortly,” MPD wrote in its only statement on the shooting thus far.
Cops and ATF everywhere in the @ThirdWardMKE right now – anyone know what the heck is going on? At least 50 cops – police tape everywhere. #milwaukee pic.twitter.com/uSIM3vASgO
— Tim Vertz (@TimVertzWI) January 13, 2022
USFIR, a site that monitors scanner traffic, confirmed what our sources told us, and wrote on Twitter, “Milwaukee WI – N Water / W Buffalo – Off Duty police officer shot multiple times, conscious and breathing #Milwaukee #Shooting #OfficerDown #USFiR.”
We’ve written many stories about shootings along Water Street and how dangerous that street became, especially during the summer. See our Water Street coverage here.
The Third Ward is an area of Milwaukee that had undergone a renaissance and is a popular area for lunch crowds. The brazen shooting happened in broad daylight as the city continues to reel from spiking violent crime and city and county officials more focused on using anti-police rhetoric than solving the problem. Motor vehicle theft rose 132% in Milwaukee in 2021.
