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A police officer shot and killed a man who injured him with a knife while resisting arrest in Madison, Wisconsin, on Wednesday, officials said, prompting large crowds of protesters to march on the state Capitol.
Cellphone video of the shooting, where three gunshots can be heard, has circulated on social media. The video shows numerous cars stopped in the intersection, with people watching as the incident unfolded.
Madison Police Chief John Patterson said at a news conference that the man killed was in his 30s but did not release his name.
However, speakers at the protest identified the man as Corey Ruiz, according to the Wisconsin Examiner, and videos on social media show protesters chanting his name. The news outlet Wisconsin Right Now also identified the man as Ruiz, citing two unnamed sources with knowledge of the matter.
At the news conference, Patterson said the footage circulating was just one perspective of what happened, adding that it “is not a full overview of everything.”
Newsweek has contacted the Madison Police Department, the office of Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway and the office of Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers for comment by email outside regular working hours.
What We Know About the Madison Shooting
Patterson said police were dispatched to a call just before 1 p.m. after a report that someone was attempting to enter parked vehicles in the neighborhood.
“Officers located the man. They attempted to contact him, but he fled on a bicycle and then traveled through some nearby backyards,” the police chief said.
Officers found him again at the intersection of Baldwin and Williamson streets around 1:30 p.m., Patterson continued.
The man either fell off his bike or officers took him off his bike, he added.
“A physical struggle ensued with officers in the middle of the intersection,” Patterson said, adding that during the struggle, the man pulled out a knife and injured an officer.
According to the police chief, an officer deployed a Taser, but it was unsuccessful. The same officer who had been injured by the knife fired his weapon, and the man who was shot died later at the hospital. The police department published a picture of the knife in a news release.
Patterson described the officer who fired his weapon as a veteran officer. But he did not provide any other details about the officer or the man he fatally shot.
The Wisconsin Department of Justice’s Division of Criminal Investigation will independently investigate the shooting because of the involvement of police officers, Patterson said. The four responding officers will be placed on administrative leave, per the police department’s policy.
Why There Is No Body Camera Footage
The incident is not expected to have been captured on body cameras, as the Madison Police Department is one of the few large police departments in Wisconsin that does not use them.
Patterson has pushed for body-worn cameras to be included in the 2027 budget. “There’s a variety of reasons to have these, but they’ve really gone from modern technology to essential tools for the modern police officer,” Patterson said in June, per local outlet WKOW.
Last year, the Madison Common Council rejected a budget amendment that would have funded body cameras.
How Advocacy Groups, Lawmakers Have Responded
Black advocacy groups in Madison have said the man killed in the shooting was Black.
“Today, Madison police shot a Black man three times at close range while he was experiencing a mental health crisis. Video circulating through our community shows him lying dead in the street. Officers then handcuffed him and piled onto his body,” Brandi Grayson, the head of the Madison-based Black community advocacy group Urban Triage, said in a statement.
The shooting happened on the same street where a white police officer shot and killed Tony Robinson, a biracial 19-year-old who was unarmed, which sparked large protests in 2015. The district attorney did not file charges against the police in that case, determining the officer was justified.
State Representative Francesca Hong, a democratic socialist running in the Democratic primary for Wisconsin governor, called Wednesday’s shooting “an execution, and it never should have happened.”
In a statement, Hong said police “killed a Black man just a few blocks from our campaign office and just a few blocks from where Madison police murdered Tony Robinson in 2015.”
Republican state Representative Jim Piwowarczyk, a former police officer who co-founded Wisconsin Right Now, said he believed the officer was likely justified in using deadly force.
“The chief says Corey Ruiz produced a knife and injured an officer during the struggle,” Piwowarczyk wrote on Facebook.
“That officer then fired his weapon after less-than-deadly force (TASER) was used,” he continued. “An officer must fear for his life or great bodily harm to himself or others to justify deadly force. I believe he met that burden.”
Newsweek has contacted Piwowarczyk for comment by email outside regular working hours.
The state’s Democratic governor, who is not seeking reelection in November, said he had been briefed on the shooting.
“There must be transparency and accountability in any investigation moving forward,” Evers wrote on X.
“We will continue to keep the loved ones and family of the individual who was killed in our hearts and prayers,” the governor continued. “His life mattered. As folks exercise their First Amendment rights tonight and in the days ahead, we urge them to do so peacefully and respectfully.”
This is a developing story. More to follow.
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