MILWAUKEE—A Milwaukee police officer was shot and wounded in an exchange of gunfire with a man who was initially found slumped over the wheel of a vehicle, the third shooting of a law enforcement officer in the city in two weeks.
The officer arrived for a call to check on a sick or disabled person just before 6:30 p.m. Thursday and the man in the vehicle brandished a gun, Milwaukee Police Chief Jeffrey Norman said.
The officer and the 22-year-old man exchanged gunfire, police said, and both were struck. The officer was hospitalized with wounds that were described by police as nonfatal.
“After an exchange of gunfire, the suspect entered the wounded MPD officer’s squad car and fled the scene,” Norman said told reporters.
The man reportedly crashed into another vehicle, ran away, and was later captured by police. He and the person in the vehicle he crashed into were taken to the hospital with nonfatal injuries, Norman said.
Names of those involved weren’t immediately released. The officer is 26 years old with over seven years of service.
It was the second shooting of a law enforcement officer in two days in the city and the third in two weeks. Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Deputy Christian Almonte was shot on Wednesday. Almonte, 26, was released from a hospital Thursday after being treated for multiple gunshot wounds.
A 19-year-old man, who authorities said later killed himself, shot at Almonte as officers searched the Johnson’s Woods neighborhood following a traffic stop. Almonte was struck in both arms and his torso.
On Jan. 13, an off-duty Milwaukee police detective was shot and wounded when he intervened in an attempted carjacking in the city’s Third Ward.
