Ohio Cops Cleared in RNC Shooting

UPDATE May 5, 2025 6:08 PM CDT

Police officers from Columbus, Ohio, didn't violate Wisconsin law when they killed a man during the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee last year, a prosecutor says. In a review of the case issued Monday, Milwaukee County DA Kent Lovern cleared the five Columbus officers, who were among thousands of out-of-state officers providing extra security, of wrongdoing, the AP reports. Lovern said the officers were justified in using deadly force when they saw 43-year-old Samuel Sharpe lunge at another man with a knife in each hand. The DA said that the use of force is permitted to "prevent imminent death or great bodily harm" and that no further action will be taken, reports WTMJ.

Jul 16, 2024 8:14 PM CDT

A Milwaukee man was fatally shot Tuesday afternoon by police officers from Columbus, Ohio who were in town to provide security for the Republican National Convention, authorities say. Milwaukee Police Chief Jeffrey Norman said the man had a knife in each hand and refused police commands, the AP reports. He said five Columbus officers fired at the man. The shooting happened almost a mile from the convention site, in an area Columbus police said was at the "outer perimeter of the RNC, within the operational zone to which our officers were assigned," reports NBC News.

Dozens of officers from Columbus are among an estimated 4,000 police from other jurisdictions providing security during the RNC. Columbus police said the shooting appeared to be unrelated to the convention. "Someone's life was in danger," Norman said. "These officers, who were not from this area, took it upon themselves to act and save someone's life today." Witnesses said the man shot by the out-of-state officers lived in a homeless encampment across the street from King Park, where he was shot, and was well-known in the community, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports.

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Community activists and relatives of the man who was shot asked why out-of-state officers were so far from the convention, the AP reports. "They came into our community and shot down our family right here at a public park," said Linda Sharpe, the man's cousin. "What are you doing in our city, shooting people down?" Vaun Mayes, an activist who works with the neighborhood's homeless community, tells the Journal Sentinel that he has successfully de-escalated fights in the area and he believes the man would not have been shot if Milwaukee officers had been involved. (More Republican National Convention stories.)