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DeShaunte Adams

Age : 43

Gender : Male

Race : Black

Date : 08/26/2022

Location : 3500 block of North 11th Street, near West Keefe Avenue

City : Milwaukee

County : Milwaukee

State : Wisconsin

Agency : Milwaukee Police Department

Officer(s) :Not Disclosed

Cause of Death : Suicide

Event : Suicide under police duress

OPEN RECORDS SUMMARY :

On 08/26/2022, 43-year-old DeShaunte Adams died from a gunshot wound following a foot pursuit and exchange of gunfire with Milwaukee Police Department officers near North 11th Street and West Keefe Avenue. Police classified the fatal wound as self-inflicted, but Adams's family later disputed that account after viewing body-camera footage and sought release of the complete recordings.
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At approximately 11:54 a.m., Milwaukee police were searching for Adams in the 1100 block of West Keefe Avenue because he was wanted for violating a felony domestic-abuse injunction. Officers saw Adams and approached him, and he ran from them on foot.
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According to Milwaukee police, Adams fired at officers during the foot pursuit and an officer returned fire. Police reported that neither Adams nor the officers were struck during this initial exchange. Police alleged that Adams subsequently fired toward officers again, but officers did not return fire during that second encounter.
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Adams entered a backyard in the 3500 block of North 11th Street. Milwaukee Police Chief Jeffrey Norman said Adams then shot himself in the head. Officers subsequently approached Adams using a tactical ballistic shield. Police said that while officers were securing Adams, his firearm discharged and a bullet struck a 36-year-old officer in the leg.
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Adams's family later directly challenged the police account after members of the family were permitted to view a portion of the officers' body-camera footage in November 2022. His mother, Sharon Webb, and sister, Annesha Adams, said the video they viewed showed Adams getting down while officers were confronting him and then being shot. The family also disputed the police assertion that Adams's gun subsequently discharged and wounded an officer, alleging instead that the officer was struck by another officer's gunfire.
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The family's questions were reinforced by the status of Adams's death certificate months after the shooting. In January 2023, reporting on the certificate showed that the manner of death remained listed as pending rather than suicide. Milwaukee police nevertheless continued to stand by their original account that Adams had fatally shot himself.
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After viewing the body-camera footage, the family filed an open-records request seeking the complete recordings. Milwaukee police denied the request in December 2022, stating that the footage was connected to a pending internal investigation involving a possible criminal offense or employee misconduct.
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In January 2023, Adams's family filed a lawsuit against the Milwaukee Police Department seeking release of the body-camera footage. Attorney B'Ivory LaMarr represented the family and argued that the recordings were necessary to determine what actually occurred and why the family's description of the footage differed from the department's public account.
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Adams was a father of four. His family continued publicly disputing the official suicide narrative and demanding release of the complete video evidence surrounding his death.
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OFFICER BACKGROUND:
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The Milwaukee Police Department officers involved in the gunfire exchange and the officers present when Adams suffered the fatal gunshot wound were not publicly identified in the records located.

SOURCE LINKS :

https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/2022/08/26/1-dead-police-officer-wounded-sorth-side-milwaukee-shooting/7905741001/
https://www.fox6now.com/news/11th-keefe-felony-suspect-dead-milwaukee-officer-wounded
https://urbanmilwaukee.com/pressrelease/mpd-officer-struck-by-gunfire/
https://www.wisn.com/article/exclusive-milwaukee-family-rejects-police-account-of-mans-death-and-officer-shot/42437265
https://wtmj.com/news/2023/01/11/body-camera-footage-denied-release-in-deshaunte-adams-case-lawsuit-pending/
https://www.cbs58.com/news/family-sues-milwaukee-police-after-a-request-to-see-bodycam-footage-of-mans-death-denied
https://www.fox6now.com/news/milwaukee-police-shooting-bodycam-lawsuit