Milwaukee, WI – On August 16, 100 members of the Milwaukee community gathered near 26th and Wright Streets looking for answers for the shooting death of Roderick Shelton, Jr. It’s unknown publicly who the officers involved were nor why Shelton was shot by police. Milwaukee police conducted a press conference on Meinecke near the site of the murder long after it had occurred, stating that Roderick was armed and shot at them, but their story could not be verified.

“MPD is known to lie about these types of things, especially when they’ve killed someone,” said Lauryn Cross, co-chair of the Milwaukee Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression. “Regardless of what happened, we have another situation where police brought it upon themselves to be judge, jury and executioner all at once. Roderick will never get a chance to tell his story, and these cops will spin a narrative that gets them off free of charge. Enough is enough.”

The Milwaukee Alliance spent time listening to family members and close friends of Shelton. The people that the Alliance spoke with reported that he had schizophrenia and said they had no idea where he would even get a gun, claiming that he never had a gun before. A cousin of Shelton reported that she has the video of what went down, but as of the writing of this article it has not been made public.

In Wisconsin, outside agents must investigate crimes involving the police murdering someone. This is a result of the Michael Bell Law passed in 2014, ten years after the murder of Bell at the hands of Kenosha police. So far for the victims of police killings since 2014, this has meant other police departments investigating the crime. The word is that the Wauwatosa Police Department will be handling the investigation of Shelton’s murder. The WPD was recently in national news with the announcement that there is probable cause to file murder charges against former employee and serial killer Joseph Mensah, now an employee of the Waukesha County Sheriff’s Department.

We may not have all of the information yet, but one thing that the family and local groups can agree on is the fact that he didn't deserve to die. Fight Back! will have more coverage of this story as it develops.

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