Hi there,

This month, Democracy Now! marks 29 years of fearless independent journalism. Presidents have come, gone and come back again, but Democracy Now! remains, playing the same critical role in our democracy: shining a spotlight on corporate and government abuses of power and raising up the voices of scholars, advocates, scientists, activists, artists and ordinary people working for a more peaceful and just world. If our journalism is important to you, please donate today in honor of our 29th anniversary. Every dollar makes a difference. Thank you so much.

Democracy Now!

Amy Goodman

Non-commercial news needs your support.

We rely on contributions from you, our viewers and listeners to do our work. If you visit us daily or weekly or even just once a month, now is a great time to make your monthly contribution.

Please do your part today.

Donate

Wisconsin: Milwaukee Jury Acquits Officer in Shooting Death

HeadlineJun 22, 2017

In Wisconsin, a jury in Milwaukee acquitted a former police officer Wednesday of charges of reckless homicide for shooting and killing 23-year-old African-American resident Sylville Smith last August. Body cam video showed Smith fleeing from then-officer Dominique Heaggan-Brown after a traffic stop, before Heaggan-Brown shot Smith once in the arm, then fired a second shot less than two seconds later into Smith’s chest as he lay on the ground. Smith had a gun, but the video shows he threw the weapon away and had his hands on his head when he was killed. The killing sparked an uprising last summer that saw Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker call out the National Guard after local residents set fire to police cars and several local businesses.

The original content of this program is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Please attribute legal copies of this work to democracynow.org. Some of the work(s) that this program incorporates, however, may be separately licensed. For further information or additional permissions, contact us.

Non-commercial news needs your support

We rely on contributions from our viewers and listeners to do our work.
Please do your part today.
Make a donation
Top