Fallout From Fatal Madison Police Shooting of Corey Ruiz
Frederica Freyberg:
A Madison police officer shot and killed a man as four officers attempted to arrest him this week on Madison’s near East Side. Cell phone video of the altercation quickly went viral. The community response was swift, demanding answers and action. Reporter and videographer Marisa Wojcik has more but first, a warning to viewers. This video contains sounds of gunfire.
Female protester with microphone:
Who died today?
Protesters:
Corey!
Female protester with microphone:
Who was murdered today?
Protesters:
Corey!
Male protester with microphone:
We want the officer’s name tonight and we want him arrested.
Marisa Wojcik:
Protesters swelled the main traffic artery leading to the state Capitol Wednesday soon after, police shot and killed Corey Ruiz during an arrest.
Protester with hat:
We all witnessed on social media last night a human being take the life of another human being.
Male protester:
We were all there.
Marisa Wojcik:
Outrage over what online footage showed led community members to disrupt a city press conference and an event at the Capitol.
Male protester with bullhorn:
A lot of these faces don’t even care and what is going on is wrong. But yet y’all sitting here with stale faces.
Marisa Wojcik:
Police say officers responded to a call of a man checking parked vehicles. After he attempted to flee, a physical altercation ensued. One officer attempted to use a Taser, which failed. Police say Ruiz injured an officer with a knife before that officer opened fire.
Sabrina Madison:
When you see someone shot on camera and the shooting happens within a matter of, you know, one, two, three seconds, that is angering and it’s horrifying and it’s heartbreaking.
Satya Rhodes-Conway:
I want to be clear. It does not matter who you are or what your past is, you should not lose your life as a result of an encounter with law enforcement. That should not happen.
Marisa Wojcik:
City officials responded to calls for accountability Thursday.
Sabrina Madison:
My first thought is when the officer is walking away, why isn’t he walking away in cuffs? That’s my first thought.
Protester with hat:
We don’t want that foot on George Floyd’s neck, and we don’t want to hear it today.
Satya Rhodes-Conway:
It’s really understandable that people want answers right now. I want them to. But the honest truth is that good investigations take time. We have to let the investigation play out.
John Patterson:
This is an open and active homicide investigation right now.
Marisa Wojcik:
The investigation is being led by the Wisconsin Department of Justice Division of Criminal Investigation.
Female protester with bullhorn:
They are hunting us. They are hunting us.
John Patterson:
I think everyone in this room can feel the thinness of trust in this city right now, right? I can feel it. It did not start yesterday. And it’s not abstract. It’s the direct result, I think, of what our community has gone through and we have watched repeat. The shooting happened a block and a half from where Tony Robinson was shot and killed by a Madison police officer in 2015. It happened near the same corner where Paul Heenan was shot and killed by a police officer in Madison in 2012. Three fatal encounters with the police department within roughly 14 years, on the same handful of blocks.
Female protester with microphone:
This is not new to Madison. This is the third death of a Black man on Willy Street. This is not new. That’s why when we say no justice, we mean no peace.
Yogesh Chawla:
There is not enough de-escalation. There are poor training methods, and then there is a tendency to go to the most lethal form of subduing somebody as possible. When you pull out a gun, someone is going to die. And we’ve seen it happen time and time again, and we need that to change now.
Marisa Wojcik:
Many in the community are calling for all officers to wear body cameras.
John Patterson:
As you know, we don’t have a broad deployment of body-worn cameras in Madison, and I understand that this fact does create another challenge to repairing trust in our community.
Marisa Wojcik:
And wondering why the department isn’t already deploying them.
Sabrina Madison:
So the community advocated against implementation of body worn cameras for some years. And then more importantly, more recently, the community took a different turn and supported body worn cameras. In the time that I’ve been on the council, the support for body worn cameras has increased and they’ll be funded. I’m confident that they’ll be funded.
John Patterson:
We’re not going to wait for a final report from DCI to begin the work of examining our policies, our training and response. We’re going to do that now.
Yogesh Chawla:
We’ll be here every night until we get justice for the family.
Sabrina Madison:
There’s a collective anger. There’s a collective pain and there’s a collective loss.
Male protester with microphone:
Say his name!
Protesters:
Corey!
Male protester with microphone:
Say his name!
Marisa Wojcik:
Reporting from Madison, I’m Marisa Wojcik for “Here & Now.”
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