https://youtu.be/w5Eq4waTl3A?t=40s
Last weekend, Milwaukee saw multiple days of civil unrest (including shots fired) when protesters took to the street after an officer shot and killed 23-year-old Sylville Smith, who fled during a traffic stop. The officer’s body cam footage hasn’t yet been released to the public, and there’s no indication of when that will happen. Police Chief Edward Flynn, who viewed the footage, claims Smith held a gun and turned towards the pursuing officer, but the audio portion of the recording doesn’t line up correctly, so it’s difficult to tell when the officer fired at Smith.
Meanwhile, the cop involved in this shooting (Dominique Heaggan-Brown) remains on administrative leave. The police didn’t publicize his name, but the internet quickly dug up his identity, and Milwaukee’s Journal-Sentinel paper pointedly mentions how they only reported his name because it’s already widely known. Fox 6 in Milwaukee reports how Heaggan-Brown and Smith were high school classmates who “knew each other” and went separate ways. Whereas Smith racked up a lengthy arrest record, Heaggan-Brown joined the force. After last week’s shooting and subsequent unrest, he’s now receiving death threats and, as a result, has left Milwaukee to stay with a family friend.
Another wrinkle has surfaced. Heaggan-Brown was (or still is) an aspiring rapper known as KB Domo. He grew up in the North Milwaukee neighborhood where the shooting took place, and his lyrics have included anti-police sentiments. He appeared in Dae Flywalker’s 2015 “Monster Freestyle” video, which was recorded as an unreleased supplement to Flywalker’s #DIVOMDS project. At around the 0:40 mark in the above video, Heaggan-Brown sings, “Mess with my circle, I’mma start a riot like it’s Baltimore.”
#DIVOMDS was recorded in mid 2015, and Heaggan-Brown’s lyrics are clearly a response to the protests that began in April 2015 after Freddie Gray’s death. However, Heaggan-Brown joined the force back in 2010 as an aide, and he became a full-fledged officer in 2013. So, the overlap is notable, to say the least.
In addition, people who know Heaggan-Brown present other conflicting information. He became well known on the force for an act of kindness towards a homeless woman. But the Journal-Sentinel spoke to a reporter, Deandre Ueal, who knew the officer during high school. Ueal says he appeared “so eager to get somebody in trouble, mess with someone” while patrolling. He once observed Heaggan-Brown shining lights into people’s cars before ordering them out for questioning. Ueal mentions that these orders seemed to happen “frequently” while Heaggan-Brown was on bike patrol. However, the Daily Beast notes that no citizens ever filed a report against Heaggan-Brown.
(Via Journal-Sentinel, New York Daily News & Fox 6 in Milwaukee)