Everything we know about Friday afternoon's police shooting in Racine (2024)

RACINE — One man is dead after being shot by a Racine Police officer just after 1 p.m. Friday afternoon.

The name of the man has not been publicly released.

Racine Police Chief Maurice Robinson said during a City Hall press conference at 7 p.m. Friday that he had not yet confirmed that next-of-kin had been notified. No new information was released as of press time Saturday.

According to initial reports from local and state officials, at 1:03 p.m. Friday, an officer “attempted a traffic stop on a vehicle that was the subject of a search warrant for a felon in possession of a firearm.” Robinson said the initial traffic stop was attempted near the intersection of 12th Street and Schiller Street.

A “brief” vehicular pursuit ensued, according to the Wisconsin Department of Justice Division of Criminal Investigation. Then, the suspect fled on foot, ignoring the officer’s “commands to stop and drop to the ground,” Robinson said.

An initial report from DCI stated: “Following a foot chase, the subject was seen with a handgun.”

No details about how the handgun was seen have been released, including if it was being held in the subject’s hands or carried in some other fashion. Robinson described the suspect as an “armed man.”

The Racine Police Department released a photograph of the gun, lying in grass with a No. 1 evidence marker next to it. The firearm appears to be a Springfield XD handgun.

Without giving specifics, Robinson said Friday that the suspect “took an action” that led to the officer firing their gun, killing the suspect. Officials took no questions during Friday’s press conference at City Hall, which lasted less than four minutes, leaving it publicly unknown what the “action” was.

Life-saving measures were attempted — onlookers’ videos show officers performing CPR — and the individual was taken in a Racine Fire Department ambulance to Ascension All Saints Hospital on Spring Street in Racine, but was pronounced deceased there.

There is body-camera footage of the shooting, DCI and Robinson both said.

The officer involved has been placed on leave, officials said.

In attendance at Friday’s press conference were two representatives from DCI, Robinson, Mayor Cory Mason and Racine Police Criminalist Todd Hoover, president of the Wisconsin Professional Police Association.

The shooting occurred in the Midtown neighborhood on Racine’s south side, near Carroll Street, about a block west of St. Paul Missionary Baptist Church and Center Street, and a block north of where the initial traffic stop was attempted.

Robinson said “the foot pursuit went over a fence and up a small hill.”

DCI is leading the investigation, as it does with all officer-involved shootings in Wisconsin. DCI reported that the Wisconsin State Crime Lab and State Patrol are assisting in the investigation. The Racine County Sheriff’s Office and the Mount Pleasant Police Department also responded to the scene Friday.

Robinson said that, upon the conclusion of DCI’s investigation, the investigative reports will go to the Racine County District Attorney’s Office.

Crackdown

Robinson opened Friday’s press conference by referencing how the city has experienced a 49% increase in shots fired reports so far in 2022 as compared to the year prior, including six homicides (all by guns) as of May 15. In 2021, there had only been three homicides in the city, as of May 15, 2021.

Robinson indicated that Friday’s traffic stop which turned fatal was sparked by the RPD aiming to crack down on illegally possessed guns.

“In an effort to curb the gun violence, Racine Police have been executing search warrants on identified vehicles and persons,” Robinson said.

According to a 2019 report from the U.S. Department of Justice, based on the 2016 Survey of Prison Inmates, “about 1 in 5 (21%) of all state and federal prisoners reported that they had possessed or carried a firearm when they committed the offense for which they were serving time in prison...

“An estimated 287,400 prisoners had possessed a firearm during their offense. Among these, more than half (56%) had either stolen it (6%), found it at the scene of the crime (7%), or obtained it off the street or from the underground market (43%). Most of the remainder (25%) had obtained it from a family member or friend, or as a gift. Seven percent had purchased it under their own name from a licensed firearm dealer.”

Ryan Patterson of The Journal Times contributed to this report.