Search fatalities

Broderick "Baldie" E. Shelton Jr.

Age : 42

Gender : Male

Race : Black

Date : 08/16/2021

Location : Clark gas station, 2514 N. 27th Street, near W. Wright Street

City : Milwaukee

County : Milwaukee

State : Wisconsin

Agency : Milwaukee Police Department

Officer(s) :Joshua Heder; Ryan Miller; David Bui

Cause of Death : Gunshot

Event : Killed by police during armed confrontation

OPEN RECORDS SUMMARY :

On 08/16/2021, Milwaukee Police Department Officers Joshua Heder, Ryan Miller and David Bui shot and killed 42-year-old Brodrick Emanuel Shelton Jr., known to family and people in the neighborhood as “Baldie,” outside the Clark gas station at 2514 N. 27th Street near W. Wright Street. The officers were bicycle officers working together when police dispatched them shortly before 4 p.m. to a report involving a man with a gun.
The later Milwaukee Area Investigative Team file substantially expanded upon the initial police account. The 911 caller told dispatch that Shelton had taken his firearm and was pointing it at people at the gas station. Police sent Heder, Miller and Bui to the location. All three officers were wearing body cameras, and surveillance cameras at the gas station also recorded the encounter.
When the officers arrived, Shelton was near the entrance of the gas station holding a semiautomatic handgun. The officers drew their guns and repeatedly ordered Shelton to drop the weapon. Video subsequently released by Milwaukee police shows Shelton moving near the entrance while officers confronted him from outside.
According to the subsequent investigation, Shelton pointed the handgun in the direction of officers and a civilian near a gas pump and then fired. Heder, Miller and Bui returned fire. The later police community briefing reported that Shelton fired 16 rounds. Gunfire struck a nearby residence and a civilian vehicle, although no other person was physically injured.
All three officers fired their weapons at Shelton. Shelton was struck multiple times and collapsed outside the gas station entrance. Officers approached after the gunfire stopped, secured the handgun and attempted lifesaving measures, but Shelton died at the scene.
The shooting was independently investigated under Wisconsin's officer-involved-death law by the Milwaukee Area Investigative Team, with the Wauwatosa Police Department serving as the lead agency. The investigative file is unusually extensive and includes officer interviews, civilian witness interviews, body-camera recordings, gas-station surveillance video, physical evidence, firearm and ballistic evidence, dispatch records and other investigative material.
The officer interviews provide additional information not available in the original news coverage. Heder voluntarily gave investigators an interview the following day with his attorney present. He declined investigators' request to record the interview but told them that he had not reviewed his body-camera footage or other evidence before giving his account.
Milwaukee police publicly released an edited community briefing on 10/01/2021 containing portions of the 911 call, surveillance video and officer body-camera recordings. The release provided independent visual evidence of much of the confrontation rather than leaving the account dependent solely upon the statements of the three officers.
The video also complicated the family's initial understanding of what had happened. Immediately after the shooting, Shelton's sister Ella Jones strongly disputed the police account, saying she did not believe her brother had a gun or would shoot at police. His cousin Jennifer Davis similarly described him as nonviolent and said he had mental-health problems but treated people well.
People who regularly encountered Shelton around the gas station also described him in markedly different terms from the threatening-person description that prompted the police response. A gas-station worker said Shelton frequently asked customers for money but had not caused problems there. Neighborhood resident Charles Reed described Shelton as someone people knew and helped with small amounts of money and said he did not regard Shelton as dangerous.
Shelton had significant documented mental-health problems. His last reported address was Bell Therapy-Thurston, a group-home facility on Milwaukee's north side. A worker there told reporters that Shelton had been gone for approximately a month and had stopped taking his medication. The later investigative file also documented previous occasions on which Shelton had sought or received psychiatric treatment, including a 2020 incident in which he contacted police himself and asked to be taken to Milwaukee County Mental Health.
The Wauwatosa-led investigation was submitted to Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm for review. On 12/10/2021, Chisholm issued a formal decision identifying Heder, Miller and Bui and declining to prosecute any of them. Chisholm concluded that the officers' gunfire was legally justified because Shelton had pointed the handgun toward officers and a civilian and fired at police.
The DA's decision established that the shooting officers were Heder, Miller and Bui, information that was not included in the initial public reports, which identified them only by age and years of service.

SOURCE LINKS :

https://www.cbs58.com/news/large-police-presence-at-fatal-shooting-near-27th-and-wright-in-milwaukee
https://www.cbs58.com/news/man-fatally-shot-by-3-milwaukee-police-officers-identified
https://www.cbs58.com/news/milwaukee-police-release-video-series-regarding-fatal-officer-involved-shootings
https://www.fox6now.com/news/27th-and-wright-police-shooting-mpd-releases-community-briefing
https://www.fox6now.com/news/milwaukee-man-fatally-shot-by-police-identified-neighbors-react
https://www.fox6now.com/news/1-fatally-shot-by-milwaukee-police-near-27th-and-wright
https://www.wisn.com/article/milwaukee-police-release-edited-video-of-two-officer-involved-shootings-in-august/37827360
https://www.wauwatosa.net/home/showpublisheddocument/4419/637756874290270000
https://www.wdio.com/archive/milwaukee-county-prosecutor-clears-police-in-fatal-shooting/