A traffic stop in Milwaukee ended with a Black bystander shot and shackled to a hospital bed for hours and his 14-year-old daughter handcuffed and thrown to the ground, the man said.
Tari Davis, 41, told reporters Sept. 12 during a news conference that he wants the officer who shot him fired and that he’s planning legal action against police.
He was at home when an officer shot him about 1:30 a.m. Sept. 8, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
“I shouldn’t have to worry about going to my back door,” Davis said tearfully during the news conference, “opening my back door, and being shot by a stray bullet by an officer who had no regard for no one in my home, no one in this house.”
When Davis made the statements, he was sitting in front of his home next to his girlfriend, Lateasha Russ, in the 3200 block of North 26th Street, the Journal Sentinel reported.
“I have four daughters in this house. I have a girlfriend who cares about me in this house,” he said. “They shot directly into my home, and for that I want this officer fired. I want him fired, simple and plain.”
Davis said in the incident, his teen daughter was taken into custody for more than seven hours and police confiscated his phone without telling his family if he was “dead or alive.”
“For my family to be treated like this, it hurts even more,” Davis said.
He also described the incident as “not new.”
“This has been happening for quite some time in this community,” Davis said.
“You wonder why they run. You wonder why there’s police chases,” Davis added. “They’re deathly afraid of stopping. They’re deathly afraid of what could happen next.”
Milwaukee police told the Journal Sentinel the incident began with a traffic stop about 20 minutes before the shooting. Police pulled over a driver in the 2700 block of West Townsend Avenue and he fled, authorities said.
The driver, identified as 22-year-old Kevin Brown, weaved in and out of traffic, ran red lights at between 65 and 70 mph, and nearly hit several vehicles, according to a complaint the Journal Sentinel obtained.
At one point in the chase, Brown backed into an officer’s squad car and crashed into an embankment, prompting him to get out of the car and run, according to the newspaper report.
Brown ran into Davis’ home, and an officer chasing Brown shot at him allegedly thinking he was reaching for a weapon, the newspaper reported.
Davis was in “close proximity” to Brown when the bullet hit the bystander, police said.
Brown was arrested and charged with second-degree recklessly endangering safety, fleeing/eluding an officer causing property damage, obstructing an officer and skipping bail, according to the complaint.
The 27-year-old officer who fired the shot hitting Davis has one and a half years of experience, and he was placed on administrative duty, according to police.
Officials told the Journal Sentinel that after the shooting they were investigating whether Davis was involved in the incident, but when later asked whether Davis was involved, police spokeswoman Sgt. Sheronda Grant deferred comment to the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office.
No charges have been filed against Davis, according to the newspaper.
Davis described Brown, who faces up to 17½ years in prison, as a “good person,” the newspaper reported.
The injured man plans to take legal action against police, who shot him with his four children and girlfriend inside his home, Davis said.
He told reporters during the news conference he’ll need surgery after he was shot in the stomach and the bullet went through his left hip.
“It hurts to breathe. It hurts to talk,” Davis said. “It hurts to laugh. It hurts to cry right now.”