Councils Vents Frustration on City Response To Suspected Shooter Incident

A large Milwaukee Police Department presence outside the City Hall complex for reports of shots fired. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

While dozens of Milwaukee Police Department officers descended on the City Hall complex on May 15 with a report of an active shooter, hundreds of city employees were left in the dark on what was happening and what to do.

“We failed and failed miserably again. We owe our employees better,” said Council President José G. Pérez to the Public Safety & Health Committee Thursday.

Common Council members are frustrated by the city’s internal communications, or lack thereof.

“There was mass confusion,” said Pérez.

He said the City Clerk‘s Office, which includes the 15 council offices, only learned of an active incident because a staff member saw Mayor Cavalier Johnson being whisked away.

Ryan Zollicoffer, director of emergency management, said a Milwaukee Water Works employee called 911 at 3:03 p.m. with reports of a suspected active shooter. An internal security system was active a couple minutes later.

“We had a team over there in seconds,” said Zollicoffer of the fourth floor of the Frank P. Zeidler Municipal Building,

Dozens of police officers and vehicles descended on the campus within minutes.

“I don’t want to gloss over how well our public safety team did,” said the emergency manager.

But during the hour-long discussion, the council members didn’t seem concerned with the actual MPD response. Especially given that the incident turned out to be a door being slammed repeatedly by a recently terminated employee, not gunshots.

They are concerned with how the general city employees were left with little or no information.

“This is a failure for our employees… this could have been a disaster,” said Ald. Peter Burgelis.

“We sat there at least 15 minutes before we heard an announcement,” said Pérez.

The timeline preferred by Zollicoffer and Department of Public Works Commissioner Jerrel Kruschke indicates Pérez was waiting even longer.

An announcement went out over a loudspeaker system at approximately 3:30 p.m.

But Kruschke said it was only heard in City Hall itself. The public address system, part of the fire alarm system, didn’t work in the Zeidler Building despite being recently tested on May 2 by a consultant. He also indicated the message wasn’t heard in the 809 Broadway building, the third building in the tunnel-connected complex.

An email supposedly went out to many city employees at 3:23 p.m., but none of the council members at Thursday’s meeting said they received it. The administration officials couldn’t definitively say who sent it or when.

Kruschke said that when employees did learn they needed to shelter in place, it wasn’t known what needed to happen. He said the city would be adding shelter-in-place training to all city buildings, similar to what it does for fire drills.

“It’s very clear that there were some oversights, and this was absolutely not a perfect matter, including not having consistent communication through all three buildings in a timely manner,” said Mayor Johnson’s council liaison Amber Danyus.

Neither Zollicoffer nor Kruschke were on site when the incident occurred. At multiple points during the meeting, it became clear that there was no clear understanding of who was in charge of what and when and what was expected to happen. Zollicoffer said a full debriefing between all of the parties involved was expected to happen later Thursday.

“We are all disappointed. We are all upset. We knew nothing,” said Pérez.

“I’m disappointed in this conversation because I’ve heard many ‘I don’t knows’ and we’re talking about safety here,” said Ald. Lamont Westmoreland.

Alderwoman Larresa Taylor said Milwaukee Public Schools, her former employer, has a clear system with color-coded announcements that inform staff what to do.

“There are things we have to explore, we have to put in place,” said Kruschke. “I agree with you.”

“I can tell you right now, I don’t have any confidence we are prepared should anything happen,” said Alderman Mark Chambers, Jr. He also made it clear he doesn’t believe a courthouse-style metal detector setup, as offered by Westmoreland in a press release the day of the incident, is the appropriate response.

“Our message is we are going to be working department to department to ensure that everybody knows their emergency prepaedness procuedures and we’re committed to testing regularly, that they’re receiving those notifications, that they know the process inside and outside and that they feel safe working within city buildings,” said Zollicoffer when Westmoreland pressed him on what would happen.

“We appreciate the comments and know that we have to do better,” said Kruschke.

“This whole conversation feels lackluster today,” said Alderwoman Milele A. Coggs. “It’s obviously a breakdown.”

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