Police officers shot and killed a man outside the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on Tuesday afternoon.
The shooting occurred in a park about 1.2 miles from Fiserv Forum, which is hosting the RNC all week, local ABC affiliate WISN reported.
Witnesses told the station two men were fighting in the park when one man pulled a knife. Numerous officers swarmed the scene and fatally shot the knife-wielding man, according to WISN.
However, other witnesses told local NBC affiliate WTMJ that the victim was simply trying to walk across the street when officers followed him and shot him in the back.
Family and acquaintances of the victim identified him as Samuel Sharpe Jr., a man living in a tent encampment at nearby King Park, the Journal Sentinel reported.
The officers who opened fire were not local Milwaukee cops. They were members of the Columbus Division of Police from Ohio, according to the Columbus Dispatch. They were in Milwaukee to provide extra security for the RNC.
“They’re in unfamiliar territory and they don’t know King Park from Central Park,” Milwaukee alderman Robert Bauman told the Journal Sentinel. “If it was an MPD officer, he would have known, no, no, no this is King Park, this is a known area for homeless to camp out, lots of folks with mental disabilities in here, tread carefully, de-escalate.”
Though Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump was shot in the ear just two days before the start of the convention, officials said they made no changes to security plans at the RNC in response.
Following Tuesday’s shooting, investigators and leaders said there was no connection between the incident and the RNC.
Trump, 78, arrived at the convention on Monday night with a bandage over his left ear, his first public appearance since he was rushed off stage by Secret Service agents after shots rang out Saturday at the rally in Butler, Pa.
Tuesday’s shooting was the eighth time this year Columbus police officers have shot someone, according to the Dispatch.
Sharpe was well-known in the area among homeless advocates and fellow camp residents.
“He was a person,” Shelly Sarasin of outreach group Street Angels told the Journal Sentinel. “He was human.”
