Here & Now

Noon Wednesday: Another Murky Police Shooting in Madison

Marisa Wojcik:

Welcome to “Noon Wednesday,” I’m Marisa Wojcik, multimedia journalist with “Here & Now” on PBS Wisconsin. Today is February 9. Questions about how police use force have been renewed after an officer shot a black man in Madison during a, quote, multijurisdictional arrest effort on Thursday with the with Dane County Sheriff’s Office offering few details about the, quote, officer-involved shooting where, quote, shots were fired. Here to discuss her reporting on this is Emily Hamer, criminal justice reporter from the “Wisconsin State Journal,” and thank you so much for joining.

Marisa Wojcik:

Yeah. Thank you so much for having me.

Marisa Wojcik:

So who is Quadren Wilson? What can you tell us about the man shot by law enforcement officers?

Marisa Wojcik:

Yeah. So he’s 38, and we don’t know much about — I have not talked to him yet, but I did talk with his family, and they just are really concerned about him and his safety. He is — his mother said he was shot, and that he recently went through surgery, and he’s now in the Dane County Jail. The Dane County Sheriff’s Office said he was wanted on a warrant from the Department of Corrections, but we don’t know what that warrant is or why police were after him because police have not said at this point.

Marisa Wojcik:

So can you run us through the time line of events as you understand them? What happened in the officer-involved shooting Thursday morning on Madisons far east side?

Marisa Wojcik:

Yeah. So this information is all coming from Wilsons mother because police have not said much at all about what has happened. The shooting happened a little after 8:00 a.m. in Madison in intersection. We know that for sure. Wilson’s mother said that she was told in a brief conversation he pulled up to a stoplight, and a truck in front of him backed up into his vehicle, and then another truck kind of sandwiched him from behind, and then he realized that the occupants were undercover officers, and they came out and started yelling for him to put his hands up. She said that Wilson said they broke his windows, and he put his hands up on the dash, up on the steering wheel right away, and he said that they just started shooting at him. So that is Wilsons account of the shooting as told to me by his mother. I don’t know much more about it other than that because police are not providing very many details at all. There is a video of the aftermath of the shooting, and it doesn’t show the shooting, itself, though, but it shows a lot of law enforcement around this sandwiched vehicle, and it shows a man being pulled on a stretcher into an ambulance.

Marisa Wojcik:

You said law enforcement haven’t said much about this, but of what they have said, can you share, you know, at least even the smallest of details? Are they responding to your inquiries? Are they giving any indication of when they might provide more details to the public?

Marisa Wojcik:

Not really at all, no. They provided a brief update yesterday morning where they finally confirmed that the man shot was Quadren Wilson, and before that, they only said it was a 38-year-old man. Other than that, they said that — they are saying that it was an officer-involved shooting in which shots were fired. They have not even confirmed that police were the ones to shoot Wilson. We do know that Madison Police were assisting the Wisconsin Department of Justice’s Division of Criminal Investigation in an arrest. Madison Police did not fire any weapons at all. They got in an update Monday, I believe, saying they did not even see the shooting happen. They were on the perimeter, so it seems pretty clear it was an officer with the Division of Criminal Investigation. That is what Wilsons mother said, but police authorities have not given us that information yet, nor said who the officer was who shot Wilson. It could even maybe be more than one officer.

Marisa Wojcik:

In your experience as a criminal justice reporter, is that standard practice that at this point in a case that’s kind of murky and has the potential to be upsetting to the public that there is no more details other than these very, very vague phrases being said? Do you think that police should be providing more information regardless?

Marisa Wojcik:

I definitely think that police should be providing more information to the public on this. I don’t know exactly what standard practice is. I do think that police reporting and holding the police accountable is something that my colleague, Chris Ricker, has done more of while I focus on the business system, so he knows more about that and the history of that, but I think from his reporting they typically let us know a little bit quicker than this, the details of the shooting, but there was an incident last fall when they used — authorities used this kind of murky language, and they made it seem like a suspect shot police when, really, it was police officers who fired their weapons, and so they have used this kind of murky language in the past that’s confused things in the initial stages.

Marisa Wojcik:

Quadren Wilson is — has undergone surgery, as you mentioned, for his injuries. How extensive were those injuries, and have you been able to reach him for comment at all?

Marisa Wojcik:

We have not been able to reach him yet at this point. I’m also not sure how extensive his injuries were. His mother said that when she talked with doctors that he — they said his injuries were in the back, and that he was shot several times in the back. They were very worried, when I spoke with them on Saturday, they have not got an update yet. They were worried, wondering if he was even alive, but he did make it through surgery okay, and he is in the Dane County jail. They said that he is not doing great. I don’t know exactly what that means, though, but he is alive, so that’s about all we know.

Marisa Wojcik:

And you mentioned you spoke with his family members, and his mother shared what her son told of her about the incident, which you already shared a little bit. Can you tell us anything else that she relayed to you?

Marisa Wojcik:

She — one thing I had not mentioned yet was that she said Quadren Wilson was unarmed in the shooting. She said that he told her he didn’t know or understand why police were after him, and that he believes he was shot in the back at least five times. He told her that he heard maybe 20 shots. Again, we don’t know how accurate that is yet. Haven’t gotten much confirmation from the police. In the video of the aftermath, it doesn’t have the shooting or sound, and so we — there’s still very little information about it, but we do know, according to his mother, he was unarmed.

Marisa Wojcik:

Now, again, in your experience as a criminal justice reporter, have you come across anything that looks like this before? You know, two trucks backing in and forward into a car to sandwich them in the morning daylight in public? It’s the office of — it’s DCI agents that are doing this. Does this seem out of the ordinary of a situation for what he was potentially wanted for?

Marisa Wojcik:

Uh-huh. Yeah. I haven’t seen anything like that before. I did — I know that I covered some of the protests in the summer of 2020 after the murder of George Floyd, and I saw police pull up in an unmarked vehicle and take a suspect into the car, just kind of by surprise. It felt like it was out of nowhere. It is not the exact same thing, but I have seen them before use — when they make an arrest, they want to be able to use the element of surprise to limit situations like what happened where it ends up in a shooting, obviously, that did not work here, but I have seen surprise tactics used before. I’m not sure how unusual this method is, though.

Marisa Wojcik:

Now, given all of the different jurisdictions that are involved, the Dane County Sheriff’s Office are the ones that are investigating. Why are they investigating this incident?

Marisa Wojcik:

Yeah. So it’s — it’s a little confusing, but the — so Madison Police were on scene. They were helping, but they didn’t see the shooting. The Wisconsin Department of Justice’s Division of Criminal Investigation, it was their arrest. It was their incident. Normally, when there’s an officer-involved shooting, the state Department of Criminal Investigation is the one to lead those sorts of investigations. It is sort of an outside agency that’s looking into whether there was any wrong doing by the authorities, but since the Division of Criminal Investigation was involved, the Dane County Sheriff’s Office is meeting the investigation of the officer-involved shooting as they were not involved at all in the incident, itself.

Marisa Wojcik:

And Wilsons brother is saying that race is a factor, at least as to why information from law enforcement is minimal and vague. As you just mentioned, the murder of George Floyd and other cases created a lot of criticism for law enforcement response and the media in how they cover, and how these investigations are led, how they are communicated, has this impacted your approach in this specific story?

Marisa Wojcik:

I think in this story, just knowing what happened with George Floyd, I think it made us want even more to be really aggressive in pursuing this and getting as much information as we can, especially since police were not even saying that they were the ones who shot Wilson, and so I — it was not just me and my colleague, Chris Ricker, as well, pushed officials to try to give a some sort of information, just anything a little bit more about what had happened, and he was the one who — Chris was the one who found the family members and got in touch with them, and we really were trying to convince them to talk with us about what they knew about what happened just so the public could know anything more about this shooting, because I think it is really important when police shoot someone for the public, the taxpayers, to know what happened and why.

Marisa Wojcik:

What stands out to you about this case?

Marisa Wojcik:

I think just — what has stood out to me is just kind of how frustrated his family is and how when I talked with them over the weekend, they couldn’t see Wilson, and they were really upset by that. They didn’t know how he was doing. They couldn’t hear anything from him. His — he was not able to see his lawyer while he was in the hospital. Wilson is in custody, so that’s part of why that they were not allowed into the hospital to see him, but they just were really worried about him and wanting answers, and the authorities were not giving them much of anything at all for answers. Maine Morris, Wilsons younger brother, he just was very emotional. He feels like police tried to kill his brother, and it just is — the family really wants answers on this, and, I guess, what sticks out to me is that authorities aren’t giving much of that at this point.

Marisa Wojcik:

So will there be more reporting on this as details emerge?

Marisa Wojcik:

Yeah. For sure. Authorities have said to just kind of — the Dane County Sheriff’s Office said yesterday they are asking the public to be patient. They say they are going to be releasing more information on this. We’re not sure when that will happen, but I do trust that they are going to let us know more about why they were after Wilson, why this arrest was so aggressive, and we should hear about that — I don’t know when, but we should hear about it.

Marisa Wojcik:

Well, we appreciate your reporting and your colleague, Chris Ricker, and we’ll be following as more of those details are reported. Emily Hamer from the “Wisconsin State Journal,” thank you so much.

Marisa Wojcik:

Yeah. Thank you.

Marisa Wojcik:

For more from “Here & Now” and PBS Wisconsin, you can visit pbswisconsin.org/news, and thank you so much for joining us on “Noon Wednesday.”