West Allis, Wisconsin: Officer Shoots Armed Man, 31, During Probation Home Visit on South 71st Street

A West Allis police officer shot and wounded a 31-year-old man on Tuesday night during a scheduled probation and parole home visit at a home in the 2200 block of South 71st Street, according to the West Allis Police Department. Police said the man, who was on community supervision, was armed with a firearm when officers encountered him during the visit. He was taken to a hospital for treatment of his injuries. Police did not release his name or his condition in their first account.

What police say happened

West Allis officers were working with Wisconsin Department of Corrections probation and parole agents on Tuesday, October 27, to conduct scheduled home checks of people under community supervision in the city. At about 9:20 p.m., one of those visits took the officers and agents to a residence near South 71st Street and Grant Avenue. Police said the subject of that visit was armed when they encountered him, and during the encounter a West Allis officer fired, striking the 31-year-old man.

Officers gave the man aid at the scene until the West Allis Fire Department arrived, and he was then taken to a local hospital, police said. No police officers, probation and parole agents or other civilians were injured, according to the department. Police described their account as preliminary and based on initial reports of the incident.

Outside team takes the investigation

The officers involved in the shooting were placed on administrative duty, which the department said is its protocol after an officer involved shooting. The West Allis Police Department asked the Milwaukee Area Investigative Team to investigate the shooting, and the City of Waukesha Police Department is the lead investigative agency. That arrangement keeps the review of a West Allis shooting in the hands of outside departments while the facts are gathered.

Police have not said what happened in the moments before the shot was fired, whether the man pointed the firearm at anyone, or whether any charges are being considered. Those answers now sit with the investigative team, and the department said its first information could change as the review continues.

Checks run on a regular schedule

The visit that ended in gunfire was not a raid called in that night. TMJ4 reported that the home visits are conducted on a regular, scheduled basis to verify that people on probation or parole are following the court ordered conditions of their supervision, and that officers were partnering with state corrections agents for the round of checks across the city on Tuesday. One of those routine checks, at a home on South 71st Street a few blocks south of Grant Avenue, is now the subject of a formal shooting investigation in West Allis, a Milwaukee suburb in Milwaukee County.