Milwaukee police union president says ‘truth’ will come out as public awaits footage of fatal shooting of Printis Smith by officer

The Milwaukee Police Association president is pushing back on the family of 23-year-old Prentis Smith, who was shot and killed by an officer last week.

The family, through their attorney B’Ivory LaMarr, disputed the statements made by Police Chief Jeffrey Norman the night of the shooting on Sept. 8.

The family reviewed the bodycam footage of the shooting within 48 hours, as required by law. After reviewing the footage, the family said the video showed an execution that was not an exchange of gunfire as described by Norman.

The shooting took place in the 2400 block of North 37th Street after police stopped a vehicle connected to a shots fired incident in Glendale, according to police. Once stopped, multiple people fled the vehicle when an officer, who has not been identified, caught up to Smith.

Police must release the video to the public by Sept. 23, 15 days from the shooting.

The president of the police union for rank-and-file officers, Alex Ayala, released a statement on Sept. 14, despite an independent agency in the Wauwatosa Police Department conducting the investigation.

“I cannot remain silent while a Milwaukee police officer is falsely accused of carrying out a ‘cold killing’ or an ‘execution,’ as described by the attorney and the family of the deceased,” Ayala said.

“The video shows Printis Smith fleeing with a gun in his hand, repeatedly disregarding the officer’s commands to get on the ground and becoming involved in a close-range physical struggle with the officer. In the final visible image before the gunfire, Smith still has the gun in his hand and his finger is engaging (or pulling) the trigger.

“Those facts directly contradict the narrative being presented by the family and its attorney. This was a deadly confrontation with an armed individual who ignored repeated commands and fought an officer while firing a gun, while another gun was tucked into his waistband.”

Norman said the night of the shooting that Smith and the officer "exchanged gunfire” while Smith ignored several commands.

The family said they didn’t see Smith fire any shots or see an injured officer as described by Norman. LaMarr, who hasn’t seen the video himself, described what the family recalled:

“From what they saw, they believe this is an execution. They believe this was not warranted,” he said. “His mother said there was no announcement to drop a weapon but (the officer) did yell ‘stop!,’

“(Smith) didn’t stop immediately but maybe five houses down he did stop. His back was to the officer and when the officer caught up to him he grabbed his left shoulder to kind of bring him around to face him. And upon turning him around, he shoots him in the head.”

“(Norman) says there was an exchange of gunfire that he believes. He was asked how many shots were fired. He says, ‘two.’ So there’s really a discrepancy. Then he was asked who fired first and he couldn’t answer that question but he said he saw the bodycam.

“In addition, he said the officer was injured. Well, that’s pretty broad. Was it a gunshot like the media interpreted it to be? There was no clarifying statement. It could be a sprained ankle, pulled muscle. It was also described as a tussle, but that interpretation is being challenged as well.

“Those types of things cast doubt on the reasonableness of the officer.”

Ayala said the family is “entitled to grieve. It is not entitled to use the delay in releasing the video to fill the public record with false and inflammatory accusations against this officer.

“When the footage is released, the public will see the truth for itself. It will see an officer who confronted an immediate deadly threat and demonstrated remarkable courage in protecting the people of Milwaukee.”