Police said that a stun gun was used, but that it was ineffective. The officer who was injured with the knife then fired at Ruiz.
None of the four officers who were detaining the man wore body cameras.
Videos of the shooting were captured by bystanders and went viral on social media. One of them, verified by NBC News, appears to show officers holding the man as someone yells, “Let go!” Multiple shouts of “He’s got a knife!” can also be heard.
Someone then appears to yell, “Taser!” Roughly three seconds later, a male officer standing over Ruiz appears to fire three rounds, and Ruiz stops moving.
Four officers were involved in or witnessed this shooting, according to police. Only one officer, who is considered a veteran officer, fired his weapon, police said. He has not yet been publicly identified.
All the officers involved will be placed on administrative leave, pending an independent investigation by the Wisconsin Department of Criminal Investigation, as required under state law.
Police said that life-saving measures were performed at the scene, and that Ruiz was pronounced dead later at the hospital.
The death, which comes about six years after George Floyd’s murder ignited a wider examination of harsh police tactics against Black Americans, prompted protests in Madison.
The shooting took place in an area with a history of police killings. It was a block and a half from where Tony Robinson was shot and killed by a Madison officer in 2015 and near the site where Paul Heenan was shot and killed by a police officer in Madison in 2012, the chief said.
A vigil for Ruiz will take place for the community this evening.
Madison encouraged the public to rally to local officials and state legislators to advocate for justice for Ruiz.
“If the protocol to go that quickly to shoot this gentleman in the head three times, and that is an option. I don’t know how that is an option. My brain has not been able to put that together as an option because I didn’t see anything that warranted it. So, if this, if we are told later that that was an option because of what preceded the shooting, then we need to be advocating at every level of government for these kinds of directives to change,” she said.
Leave a Reply