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Wisconsin: Milwaukee Jury Acquits Officer in Shooting Death

HeadlineJun 22, 2017

In Wisconsin, a jury in Milwaukee acquitted a former police officer Wednesday of charges of reckless homicide for shooting and killing 23-year-old African-American resident Sylville Smith last August. Body cam video showed Smith fleeing from then-officer Dominique Heaggan-Brown after a traffic stop, before Heaggan-Brown shot Smith once in the arm, then fired a second shot less than two seconds later into Smith’s chest as he lay on the ground. Smith had a gun, but the video shows he threw the weapon away and had his hands on his head when he was killed. The killing sparked an uprising last summer that saw Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker call out the National Guard after local residents set fire to police cars and several local businesses.

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