Officer in Sherman Park shooting fired in sexual assault case
Milwaukee police announced Monday that Officer Dominique Heaggan-Brown, who shot and killed Sylville Smith, has been fired in connection with a sexual assault investigation that led to criminal charges.
Heaggan-Brown was charged earlier this month in a sexual assault case, accused of raping an intoxicated man one day after shooting Smith. Before the alleged assault, the two men were at a bar where Heaggan-Brown had bragged about doing "whatever (he) wanted without repercussions" while watching coverage of the Sherman Park unrest, according to a criminal complaint.
Heaggan-Brown was fired Monday as a result of the internal affairs investigation into the sexual assault case that found he was in violation of the department's core value of integrity, according to a Milwaukee police news release.
Under those guidelines, department members are expected to obey all laws whether on or off-duty and "shall not behave in such a way that a reasonable person would expect that discredit could be brought upon the department, or that it would create the appearance of impropriety or corruptive behavior," the department said in the release.
Heaggan-Brown remained in jail on $100,000 bail Monday and is expected in court for arraignment on Friday. Heaggan-Brown made about $76,000 last year, a figure that includes overtime pay.
Milwaukee Police Chief Edward Flynn previously has said Heaggan-Brown faced "grave charges" that "go to the heart of our code of conduct and our oath to protect and serve."
The sexual assault charges are unrelated to the shooting of Smith, Flynn said during an Oct. 20 news conference.
"I'm sure many people will draw a connection," Flynn said at the time, adding: "That shooting is going to have to be decided on the lawfulness of the shooting in the context of the event in which it occurred, not the character of the individual who did the shooting."
Two lives, two paths, now tragically intertwined
According to preliminary information provided by city officials, Smith, 23, was armed with a gun and turning toward Heaggan-Brown, 24, who then opened fire. The shooting occurred about 3:30 p.m. Aug. 13 near N. 44th St. and W. Auer Ave.
The probe into Smith's death was led by the Wisconsin Department of Justice Division of Criminal Investigation in compliance with a 2014 state law that requires a team of at least two investigators from an outside agency to lead investigations of officer-involved deaths.
The state Justice Department's reports and accompanying evidence, including body-camera footage, were sent to Chisholm on Sept. 16. Chisholm has not given a timetable for when he will make a charging decision.
The fatal police shooting of Smith touched off two nights of violent unrest in the Sherman Park neighborhood, which many observers said had its roots in decades of systematic problems including segregation and poverty.
This is the second time Flynn has fired an officer involved in a fatal on-duty shooting. Both times the discipline did not stem directly from the officer's use of force.
Dontre Hamilton was shot and killed in April 2014 by Christopher Manney, then a Milwaukee police officer, at Red Arrow Park. That October, Manney was fired for his actions leading up to the shooting, which Flynn described as an "out-of-policy" patdown but not for the use of force itself. Manney did not face state or federal criminal charges related to the shooting.