MILWAUKEE — The actions of Columbus, Ohio officers involved in a deadly police shooting near the 2024 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee were allowable under state law, according to a review of the incident released Monday.
The review, led by the Greenfield Police Department, analyzed the actions of the officers on July 16th, 2024 at King Park, approximately a half-mile from the west end of the RNC security zone. The Columbus officers were assigned as bicycle patrol officers to provide crowd control for the convention.
Around 1:11pm, body cam footage showed officers noticing a man later identified as Samuel Sharpe appear to lunge and take swings at a second individual while armed with what appeared to be two knives. Sergeant Adam Groves is heard on camera giving Sharpe multiple verbal commands to drop the weapons while running towards the scene, which the review says Sharpe ignored. Sergeant Groves then fired six times once Sharpe was within six to eight feet of the second individual; Groves would later state if he had not Sharpe, he would have killed the second man.
Four other officers are listed in the report as having fired shots at Sharpe
Sharpe, known to locals as “Jehovah”, was pronounced dead on the scene around 1:33pm.
“The evidence in this matter indicates that multiple officers had a reasonable concern for the safety of AB based on the fact that Samuel Sharpe approached [the victim] armed with two knives and chased him on foot in a public street,” wrote Milwaukee County District Attorney Kent Lovern in the review of the case Monday. “The officers’ use of force, under the circumstances presented to them at the time, was permissible under Wisconsin law in order to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm to [the victim].”
PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Columbus police officers kill Milwaukee man accused of brandishing knives near King Park
“This is a situation where somebody’s life was in immediate danger,” Milwaukee Police Chief Jeffrey Norman said at a press conference following the shooting. “These officers, who are not from this area, took it upon themselves to act to save someone’s life today.”
DA Lovern says no further action will be taken on the matter.
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