Sharpton Faults Madison Leaders At Funeral For Man Shot By Police

A memorial for Corey Ruiz, a man who was shot and killed by Madison police, fills the Williamson Street intersection where he died Monday, July 27, 2026, in Madison, Wis. Angela Major/WPR

Mourners on Friday gathered in a Madison church to remember a man who was fatally shot by a city police officer on July 22.

The homegoing service for Corey Ruiz of Madison, a 38-year-old Black man, took place at the Fountain of Life Covenant Church on Badger Road.

Civil rights leader the Rev. Al Sharpton gave Ruiz’s eulogy.

“Corey matters,” Sharpton exclaimed, as members of the crowd broke into a standing ovation.

“We’re not violent; we’re fighting violence,” Sharpton said. “We’re not hateful. We’re fighting hate.”

In the wake of Ruiz’s death, Sharpton said an interracial coalition of “young activists” has shown “more morality and courage than the people sitting up in City Hall.”

“They don’t want peace, they want quiet,” Sharpton said of city leaders. “We didn’t elect anybody to get immunity from what we need done.”

In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, activists shut down streets and that night’s Concert on the Square at the state Capitol. For nearly two weeks, the near east side intersection where Ruiz was shot remained blocked to traffic after a makeshift memorial morphed into an encampment that spanned multiple city blocks and included tents, mattresses, tables and grills. The city forcibly cleared that encampment on Aug. 4, citing safety hazards as well as negative impacts on local residents and businesses. In a statement released through their attorneys on Aug. 5, the Ruiz family said they never authorized the encampment and called for people in the city to remain peaceful.

A total of four Madison officers are on leave while Wisconsin’s Department of Justice investigates the shooting.

Earlier this week, the DOJ identified the officer who shot Ruiz as Kiel Baitinger-Peterson. According to the DOJ, Ruiz pulled out a knife during an attempted arrest, which led to Baitinger-Peterson being injured.

Just before Ruiz’s open-casket funeral, Sharpton told reporters he decided to come to Madison after watching bystander video of Ruiz being shot.

“This could be my brother,” Sharpton said. “This could be my nephew, and the fact that my name is Sharpton and their name is Ruiz means nothing to a cop that will unload and shoot multiple times, when they could have talked to him, they could have done multiple things.”

Ruiz’s death kicked off days of protests in Wisconsin’s capital city, and Sharpton said he stands with people calling for accountability after Ruiz’s death.

“The way these activists have shown this city (what) the true spirit of what accountability and democracy is — they ought to be saluted, not attacked,” he said.

Ruiz left behind a daughter, Kah’liyah Aliomar, who recently turned 13.

In Ruiz’s funeral program, she wrote about her seeing baby pictures of her father.

“I finally understood why people said I look exactly like you,” she wrote. “Now all we have of you is pictures and your letters and that’s not enough.”

During Friday’s service, Ruiz’s mother, Elsa Ruiz, said after losing her first-born son, she felt like her heart had been ripped from her chest. She remembered Ruiz’s love for his siblings, and said he was praised by his teachers. And she recalled how he struggled with mental health issues and drug addiction throughout his life.

“The system let him down in more ways than one, and now the very people who were supposed to protect and serve have taken his life,” she said.

Elsa Ruiz said her son was homeless and was treated like “he was just a piece of trash.”

“He was not a piece of trash,” she said. “He was not a nobody. He was my son.”

One of Ruiz’s sisters, Veronica Ruiz, said Ruiz often came to her for help. Ruiz had a criminal record and she said being incarcerated “took a lot of his spirit.”

“He’s been living in survival mode for so long, and I just wanted to bring him peace,” Veronica Ruiz said. “His past has been showcased in a way that dehumanizes him, that reduces him to some homeless violent criminal as a way for them to justify killing him.”

She expressed her frustration with city of Madison officials, and said none of those officials have reached out directly to offer condolences to the family.

The remembrances of Ruiz also focused on other parts of his life.

An obituary described him as a sharp dresser with a creative sensibility.

“He enjoyed writing, drawing and music, and his artistic personality could be seen in many parts of his life,” his obituary said. “It showed through his tattoos, his style, the way he kept his hair braided, the way he carried himself.”

The obituary describes how Ruiz grew up in Madison and was raised by his mother. It says he attended local Madison schools and eventually earned a GED.

The Ruiz family’s legal team includes Ben Crump, an attorney who’s brought a long list of high-profile civil cases. That includes representing the families of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown.

Attorneys plan to release results from an independent autopsy of Ruiz in “coming days,” Crump told reporters on Friday.

‘Corey matters’: The Rev. Al Sharpton gives eulogy for Madison man killed by police was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.