Driver Shot Dead After Officer Clings To Moving Truck On South Side Street
Police say the 35-year-old ignored repeated commands to stop as he drove with the officer hanging on the door frame.
The Milwaukee Police Administration building Wednesday, July 23, 2025, in Milwaukee, Wis. Angela Major/WPR
A Milwaukee police officer shot and killed a 35-year-old man after police say the man drove away while the officer was clinging to the side of his truck.
In a press briefing, Milwaukee Police Chief Jeffrey Norman said the incident happened around 10 a.m. Thursday in the 1900 block of South 12th Street. The suspect was wanted on a parole violation and had a passenger in the vehicle.
Norman said the suspect drove his truck for several blocks with the officer hanging onto the driver-side window, ignoring multiple commands to stop even after the officer “inform(ed) the suspect that if he did not stop, he (the officer) would shoot.”
Norman called it a “totally preventable incident” that endangered the officer, the passenger in the truck and the driver himself.
“There is a time and place, when you have a disagreement with law enforcement, to be able to have your day in court,” Norman said. “The court is not on the streets. There is a responsibility to cooperate.”
The suspect died in the shooting. The officer was treated for minor injuries. The passenger in the truck was uninjured but received medical treatment “out of an abundance of caution,” Norman said.
The officer who shot the man was 46 years old with 21 years of police service.
Police did not release the names of the suspect or the officer. The West Allis Police Department will lead an investigation into the shooting.
Milwaukee police officer shoots suspect who drove away as officer clung to vehicle was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.
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this is not a good tactic
Why was the police officer clinging onto the side of the truck in the first place?
The Journal printed an article that sheds more light on what happened, certainly more than the Police Chief did. The passenger in the truck was the driver’s fiance, Emily Hernandez.
Hernandez said she told the driver, Jonathon Otto to stop the truck and for the officer to get down, but was disregarded. The entire incident took place across about four minutes and started after Otto became scared when the officer told him to get out.
Hernandez said the officer refused to listen to her and Otto continued to flee. However, she said on two occasions Otto slowed for the officer to get off but did not do so. Then, the officer pulled out his gun and told Otto he would shoot him and, soon after, fired the gun at him.
Hernandez is left with questions for the police and the officer: Why didn’t he use a taser? Did he have to shoot to kill? Why didn’t he get off the tow truck?”
Otto’s younger sister, Layna Broyld, told the Journal Sentinel in a message that he was a “good big brother”. He was loved by his entire family. He gave love so freely to anyone in his presence. He ended every phone call with ‘okay love you sister,'” she wrote. “He said every goodbye with a bear hug. He loved hard. He cared about all of us.”
No mention of the nature of the parole violation, but everything seems to be a “punishable by death” these days to law enforcement.
yes, why is police officer holding on to truck? why was otto stopped in the first place? didn’t the police put the passenger in danger too. the whole incident has too many questions and now a person is dead because the cop wouldn’t let go???
When I heard this reported on the news last night, all I could think of was, “Now the police are adopting the ICE tactics.” Scary.
Many people have said they didn’t understand what happened or didn’t have the facts. PLEASE let’s not judge any side to early.