UPDATE: WTMJ News has been provided with a photo of DeShaunte Adams’ death certificate, which lists the manner of death as “pending.” It has been added to the gallery below.
The family of DeShaunte Adams, the 43-year-old Milwaukee man who died in August 2022 after a shootout with police, is suing the Milwaukee Police Department over the release of body camera footage from the incident.
WTMJ News was on the scene near 11th and Keefe on August 26 after it happened. Police Chief Jeffrey Norman told us at the time that Adams shot himself in the head, after which his gun accidentally discharged, striking an officer in the leg.
While MPD still stands behind that initial explanation, which you can see in a press release below, Adams’ family said the body camera footage they were shown by detectives in November told a different story.
Speaking with our sister station 101.7 The Truth, Adams’ mother Sharon Webb describes a totally different version of events.
“He got on his knees, and then he heard something from the right. He said ‘What is that over there?’ and he stood up with his hands still [up] and when he stood up, they shot him,” she said. “He went down.”
Webb, along with Adams’ sister Annesha and cousin Melvin, were all in the room when they were shown the video. They challenged whether Adams’ gun was the one that went off and hit the officer as well.
“You hear the officer in the back say ‘Put your rifle on safety!’ They said where’s the suspect, suspect is down. They said where’s his gun, his gun is under him,” his cousin Melvin said. “There was another officer who said ‘The shot did not come from the suspect! The shot did not come from the suspect!”
The family is being represented by attorney B’Ivory Lamarr, who included a denial of the request from the family to have the body camera footage released in accordance with Wisconsin’s Open Records law in the filing of the lawsuit.
Lamarr also called into question why the death certificate from the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner’s Office still lists Adams’ cause of death as ‘pending’ nearly five months after his death.
The stated reason for the denial is due to a “pending investigation” by MPD of a “possible criminal offense or possible misconduct by related to employment by an employee prior to the disposition of the investigation.”
When asked for comment on the lawsuit, MPD said they do not have a formal statement and provided WTMJ News with the press release from August.
WTMJ News has been provided with the Open Records request and denial from MPD, as well as the initial press release put out after the incident, which you can see here:
