Union leader calls for permanent 2-officer squads

A suspect shot and seriously wounded a Milwaukee police officer sitting in his squad auto before fleeing and apparently killing himself shortly afterwards.

Officers were responding to domestic violence calls in the 3500 block of S. 17th St. In each of the two incidents the suspect was no longer on the scene when police arrived.

As the officer drove away, the suspect, 20-year-old West Allis, fired at the squad auto, striking the officer multiple times.

When officers got to the scene of the injured cop, they heard a single gun shot nearby around 2:30 a.m. They located a man who suffered an apparent self-inflicted fatal gun shot wound to the head.

The shooter, 20, who has not yet been named but is believed to be the suspect in the domestic violence dispute, shot himself dead a short time later.

A Milwaukee Police Officer is at a hospital recovering from non-life-threatening injuries after being shot.

The president of Milwaukee’s police union Monday called for the permanent use of two-person squad patrols following the shooting of an officer as he sat alone in his vehicle.

Baranowski, 31, is a father and husband as well as a 13-year MPD veteran. “He was shot more than once and sustained some injuries that require surgery but he was shot in his vest at least one or two times and the vest saved his life”, William Jessup, MPD assistant chief said. “I believe it would have been”, the association said in a written statement.

The incident happened hours before three Louisiana police officers were gunned down in Baton Rouge. “Up (until) now at the federal or state level, there’s no question, the gun lobby is calling the shots”, Barrett said.

Jessup said he did not know if there was any video evidence from the squad car’s dashboard camera or the officer’s body camera, WISN-TV reported.

According to our sister station CBS58 The officer was shot early Sunday morning on Milwaukee’s South Side. “But certainty the officers, I think, at this moment in time looking at the incidents in Baton Rouge and in the City of Milwaukee, will feel more comfortable in two-person teams”.