MILWAUKEE – A judge has upheld the firing of a white Milwaukee police officer who fatally shot a mentally ill black man in 2014.
Former officer Christopher Manney was fired for his actions leading up to Dontre Hamilton's death, but not for the shooting itself.
Manney appealed his firing to the circuit court after losing an appeal with the Milwaukee Fire and Police Commission.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports (http://bit.ly/2agEOjm ) that Judge Richard Sankovitz said Manney was fired for violating department rules and that his decision to frisk Hamilton escalated a routine police encounter into a catastrophe.
Manney was responding to a complaint of a man sleeping in a park when he says he was attacked and opened fire in self-defense. He shot Hamilton 14 times.
Manney was never charged in the shooting.
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Information from: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, http://www.jsonline.com
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