August 2024. Blues Vol 40 No.8

GUEST COMENTARY police

GUEST COMENTARY police law news Daniel Carr Officer Involved: Samuel Sharpe As if there was not enough drama surrounding the Republican National Convention (RNC) this week in Milwaukee, WI - there was an Officer Involved Shooting (OIS) near the RNC that involved a homeless black man and police officers from out-ofstate. THE RNC It is common during big events (RNC, DNC, World Series, etc…) for police officers from out-ofstate to assist the hosting city with security operations. Typically, the non-local officers view these assignments as a vacation, a novelty, and are looking to have an interesting experience and not to spend a lot of time making arrests and doing paperwork. For this year’s RNC police officers from all over the country descended on Milwaukee - including a group from Columbus, Ohio. WHAT HAPPENED The group of police officers from Columbus were having an outdoor Field Briefing and the supervisor was going over the assignment for the day. The officers were minding their own business and were not interacting with any members of the public. 34 The Blues - August ‘24 During the briefing a bystander yelled at the officers, “He has a knife!”. The officers immediately turned their attention to the commotion that was occurring across the parking lot. USE OF FORCE The officers observed a man (later identified as Samuel Sharpe) who was armed with two knives. Mr. Sharpe was advancing towards another man that was unarmed. The officers ran towards the two men and yelled at least eight commands of “Drop the knife!” Instead of cooperating with the clear and reasonable commands - Mr. Sharpe aggressively advanced within a few feet of the victim. Multiple officers fired their weapons just before Mr. Sharpe was able to fillet the victim. ANALYSIS The involved officers observed Mr. Sharpe advancing towards an unarmed man - with two knives. It was reasonable for the officers to believe that the victim was in immediate danger of great bodily injury or death. The officers gave Mr. Sharpe at least eight commands to “Drop the knife!” and those commands were ignored. These commands provided Mr. Sharpe with an opportunity to stop his attack - but he would not be deterred. This was a reasonable use of deadly force by police. PROTESTS The protests started within a couple hours of the OIS. There was at least one witness

who claimed that Mr. Sharpe had his hands raised (Michael Brown-style) above his head prior to the police shooting. This was objectively false. THE BODY CAM The body cam footage was released within a few hours of the OIS. Since the OIS was undoubtedly reasonable - the body cam footage reflected this perfectly. However, the protests continued (and are still ongoing) long after the footage was made public. It was a smart move by the Columbus Police Department to quickly release the footage. No reasonable person would protest the actions of these officers - instead they would commend them. FINAL THOUGHTS It is clear that the facts of this case were not relevant to the anti-police activists. They did not want the extra police officers or the RNC to come to Milwaukee and they were eager for any excuse to protest and complain. And, they have zero issue with defaming hero police officers to promote their dishonest narrative. The Blues - August ‘24 35