official intelligence for everyday questions and increasingly for help with their finances.
But before you let a chatbot weigh in on your money moves, there are some important
do's and don'ts here are set to give an update on Wednesday's deadly police shooting on
Williamson Street. Wednesday afternoon, Ruiz, there's Mayor Satya
Rhodes Conway. Let's listen in. My immediate concern right now is for the
well-being of our community. I want to make sure that everyone who needs it has access
to resources and mental health support. Those resources exist and are available to you if
you need them. If you need urgent support, please use the 988 Lifeline. You can call
or text 988 to be connected with that support. You can also text home that's H-O-M-E or Ola
H-O-A-L-A to 741-741. That's 741-741 to reach a live volunteer crisis counselor 24-7.
Dean County also has a crisis hotline. That number is 608-280-2609. Again, that's
608-280-2609. There are also more resources available on the public health website, which
is publichealthmdc.com slash resources. This is incredibly difficult moment for the Madison
community and I understand the very strong emotions that people are feeling. I am feeling
them too. As a city, as a community, as a society, we have to do better. I want to be clear.
It does not matter who you are or what your past is. You should not lose your life as a result of
an encounter with law enforcement. That should not happen. Like many in our community today,
I have a lot of questions and concerns about what happened yesterday. What decisions were made
by officers that led to escalation instead of de-escalation. What different choices could have
been made to prevent harm? What needs to change in police policy or training or anything else
to prevent more deaths? This officer involved shooting must be rigorously investigated and it
will be. The process has already started with the Department of Criminal Investigation,
but that's just the first step. The DA will play a role as will the independent monitor
and the police civilian oversight board. Our community deserves full transparency
and accountability. It's really understandable that people want answers right now. I want them
too. But the honest truth is that good investigations take time. We have to let the investigation play
out, but believe me, anything that we can do on the city side to hasten that, we will.
And beyond the formal investigation, I think there are questions that have to be answered.
The days and weeks ahead, the Common Council and myself as representatives of the community
will do our best to get and share information and to create spaces to have the conversations
that need to be had. I'm going to let Council President Madison share more details about
community listening sessions. But I also want to mention that there is a vigil tonight
that's planned that I encourage people to attend if they feel so motivated.
I also want to emphasize that the safety of the community is paramount right now.
People have every right to peacefully protest and I urge people to do that safely and to take care
of themselves in the process. The city is working to help facilitate this.
I'll close with this. Dr. Anthony of the Urban League said earlier today in their statement
that public safety must truly include everyone. I quote that statement,
adjust community must protect residents from violence and also protect them from unnecessary
harm by the very systems entrusted with their safety. Public safety cannot be measured only by
enforcement. It must also be measured by dignity, restraint, accountability, fairness, and the
preservation of life end quote. Madison should be a just community. We can be a just community.
But we have work to do to truly be a just community.
I'll hand the podium to council president Sabrina Madison.
All righty. First of all, can you hear me? Okay. Thank you. All right. So
I guess for me, I start with Corey could be a Charles. Charles can be a Clyde who step into the
room. Clyde can be a Michael. Michael can be a Tony. Tony could be a LaShawn.
A LaShawn can be James. James can be a Randall. Randall can be Tyrell.
I can go on and on and on and on. But
a Corey could have been my brother because my brother is homeless. He often rides a bike.
We meet up by the by the beacon and Corey could have been a Charles. But speaking of Corey specifically,
Corey has a family who loves him. I believe Corey has a child.
Corey is a human being. Corey came from a mother. A mother who gave birth to him.
Most of us likely came through into the world through traditional birth likely.
And so you imagine when you take this child home, you have all of these hopes for your kid.
You hope they grew up to be astronauts, presidents, entrepreneurs, so my business owners, community
leaders, you have all of these hopes for your kids. And as your kids mature, you know, you begin to,
especially if you're raising a black child and a black male child, you have to have very difficult
conversations. My son is 31 and I've had those difficult conversations, not just with my own son,
but with my three brothers. So the conversation is normally look like don't go out by yourself alone.
If the police stop you, you tell you teach your kid all of these mechanics of what you need to do
if you're stopped by the police. Make sure the police can see your hands, pull over right away,
turn on all of your lights. All of these mechanics of just moving about the world,
you sort of have to give this young black child all of these restrictions on how they move about
the world versus this freedom that exists for white young men when you're raising white boys.
For example, I have most of us have friends who are white folks with little white kids.
And I've never heard my any of my female white friends with children giving their children the
same directions that I have had to give my son. So I just want to go back to Cory is a person.
He's a human being. He has a family. He has parents who loved him, who brought him home,
who cared for him, who poured into him. And when you're raising a young person into adulthood,
as they mature into adulthood, you begin to see some of those hopes that you have for them realized.
They become parents. They become career people. They become high school graduates.
They become college folks. They become union workers. They become all kinds of things.
And so for me, seeing first getting the call from, you know, when you're a council leadership,
you get all the phone calls about emergencies. So, you know, I get the phone call.
And your first inclination is to get online and see what is happening.
And, you know, I get online to see what is happening. And I see a video of who I will learn later is Cory.
And I don't I don't see what's happening altogether. There's some cars in a way.
But I can hear the sounds. I can hear the sounds. I can hear the words taser.
And I could just hear the shots. And it's the shots that don't escape you.
And then I finally see videos with a bit more detail. And I'm telling you, I'm like,
my first thought is when the officer is walking away, why isn't he walking away in cuffs? That's my
first thought. Because I'm just I'm looking at a Cory who can be a Charles, who can be a Clyde,
who can be my son. And I'm angry. There's like no way around it. And while we know
the therapy investigations and all of that, the thing for me is that his his death is final.
And for us who have lost loved ones and have grieved loved ones or for some of us who may
be taken a longer path to the passing of a loved one, it is it is a very difficult thing to
experience. So my thoughts are with his family, his family that nurtured him and poured into him
because they no longer have him because his death is final. There's no coming back from death. So
that's where my thoughts have been. I of course want an investigation that's comprehensive,
that's complete, that's not bullshit. And you know, you want all of those things. And
I don't want something that's like a six month process or a nine month process. And we often hear
that, you know, it can be a while. So I want to encourage everybody, not just I want to I guess
I want to encourage everybody that we should all be encouraging and pushing everyone part of the
process, push the Department of Criminal Investigations to investigate comprehensively
and fairly and release information as soon as possible. We should be pushing and advocating
for our district attorney to charge folks when the community is is reviewing the information
it may feel through that information we have received the person should be charged. So I want
you to engage your district attorney or district attorney as well. I want you to engage the
office of the independent monitor because like DCI, they are, you know, they investigate a body as
well. Engage them. I want you to engage the police and fire commission. I spent about an
hour on the phone earlier today from an attorney out of the Milwaukee area and a local community
member. And she serves for her local bodies, police and fire commission. I want you to file
complaints with them. I want you to file complaints with our local Madison police department. I want
you to take every route to justice for Corey. I don't think you should limit yourselves. I want
you to continue to reach out to the common council. I want you to continue to reach out to the county.
I want you to reach out to your state legislators because if Corey, who can be Charles, who can be
Clyde, who can be Jerome, who can be this person in front of me, then if the protocol to go that
quickly to shoot this gentleman in the head three times, and that is an option, I don't know how
that is an option. My brain has not been able to put that together as an option because I didn't
see anything that warranted it. So if this, if we are told later that that was an option because
of what preceded the shooting, then we need to be advocating at every level of government for these
kinds of directives to change. I don't think we should end it here, I guess. I think it's at every
level of government. It is every body, every election, elected folks at every level of government
that has a responsibility. We have folks who are running for office right now are the folks listening
talking to those folks. How are they going to respond to this legislatively outside of their
vote on August 11 or in November? How does this impact what they're doing right now? How does this
impact the policies they've already drafted and have been running on? Do they respond with
different policy legislation? Do they just get to say we just want an investigation? Well, if they're
elected, they have a responsibility to the voters to update legislation around our police and across
the state. So the last, the other thing I want to say is I've spent a considerable amount of years
giving back into the community and making myself available in tons of spaces. And I'm mostly
private because mental health is not something that any of us should take lightly. And I want
to implore especially other orders to use services available to us. I want to implore community
members to access resources. My assumption is that Pastor Allen will share some of that.
But the Behavior Health Center from Dane County is a really great resource and a really great
confidential resource. I've made a ton of referrals and have had positive successes with them over
the years. The other thing I want to say about the listening session,
we would have held that tonight, but overnight or at some point between last night and this morning,
I learned there's a vigil for core today at five o'clock. So that listening session will not happen
tonight. I expect to have an update hopefully by Monday morning because, you know, when you're
reserving city space, there's some logistics that you need to work out first. So I expect to be able
to give an update by Monday morning. But again, I just want to am by saying that just as a reminder
that Corey has a family, the family poured into him and Corey's family won't get to see
his family's hopes and dreams for him. Like the things that we're all sitting here with who likely
for those of us who have still at least a one living parent, my mother still has hopes and
dreams for me, you know. So he, his family doesn't get to see those things realized for him. And so
I've had what 24 hours maybe to process it, but I guess I just, I just want to say that
that is not this. The only thing I could say is that's not the option that we want available for
us, if that makes sense. That's, we should, we should, the option option should be off the table.
And if this option was, I don't believe it was an appropriate option to take. And my hope is that
the investigation shows that it was not in, you know, maybe, maybe, maybe will, maybe it won't,
but whatever the outcome is, I think all of us should be advocating for that option to be taken
off the table and for training to be improved. And maybe we need to be changing our standards
of what it looks like to know that you're fit to be in our community, serving our community,
because too often we have a quarry and too often we have a quarry that doesn't allow,
does not get to sort of his parents does don't get to see their everything that they have for
him realized. So that's all I have. And Chief Patterson.
Thank you.
Good afternoon. I know we have new folks in the, in the room. I want to
just introduce myself quick, but first, thank you, Mayor and thank you, President Madison,
for your comments. My name is John Patterson. I'm the Chief of Police of the Madison Police
Department. I moved here in 1994. I've been a member of this community since then and I've served our
community for about a year now as your police chief, but I've served as a member of the department
since 1998. I want to begin by speaking plainly. Yesterday, a young man, a young member of our
community died after an encounter with one of our officers. He was in his 30s and I know he had a
family who cared for him and I know he had a community who cared for him. His family is grieving
today and our entire community, I believe, is grieving alongside them. I don't want to rush
past that fact to share with you what will come next. I want to take time to outline the process
for all of you when a death occurs in any community in Wisconsin that involves police.
This is an open and active homicide investigation right now. In accordance with state statute,
a long-standing practice, the Madison Police Department has called for a thorough and independent criminal
investigation into yesterday's shooting. So at the request of us at the MPD, the Wisconsin Department
of Justice Division of Criminal Investigation has been called DCI by me and others in the past.
They will lead this homicide investigation. As you know, DCI is a statewide agency. They
have experience and expertise in these types of situations, these types of situations that involve
police shootings. So they are fully in charge of this investigation. DCI is fully in charge
of this investigation. During these investigations, their agents quickly respond to the scene. They
process it for evidence. They thoroughly document the scene. They analyze video that they can find
Canvas for video, interview witnesses. They create their own documents. DCI will also release the
name of the officer who fired his firearm at some point in their investigation and I sincerely
hope that is soon. Once all of the facts and information have been gathered, DCI will then
present it to the district attorney's office for that review and decision. So this process exists
precisely so that no department in Wisconsin investigates itself and its own actions involving
its community members. I'm not going to stand here today and render a verdict or an opinion
about what the investigation will find because I believe that will jeopardize what we all want
which is independence, an independent review. What I can promise you is that this department
will cooperate fully with DCI and we will not hide from any aspect of this investigation.
So I've been thinking a lot today about a former chief who led this department for 21 years,
David Cooper. So long before community policing was a phrase that people seem to use casually
now, he built this department upon that conviction. He built it upon something he would plainly
say that you cannot do the job unless you have the support of your community.
Years after he left office, he wrote something that I'd think this department has to sit with
very honestly right now. He said that the use of physical force by police is a sacred and public
trust. He also said that more than the force the department uses the less trust and support
it has from the people it serves, the more force we use, the less trust we have. That is the tension
that we are living through right now in this city and I can physically feel it.
I also want to name something directly because I know this city has not forgotten about it and
will not be silent about it and I referenced it somewhat yesterday but this shooting happened
a block and a half from where Tony Robinson was shot and killed by a Madison police officer in 2015.
It happened near the same corner where Paul Heenan was shot and killed by a police officer
in Madison in 2012. So three fatal encounters with your police department within roughly 14 years
on the same handful blocks. I'm not going to stand here and draw a view of conclusion but
any of the three but I'm saying because I think we all have to recognize it. We have to recognize
the trauma that this community has gone through is experiencing now again and pretending that
this is the first time I would ask this community to forget trauma and forget losses endured and
I will not do that. Trust in this department is not something any of us can assume it is by far
our greatest commodity. It must be earned continuously and I think it can be lost in a single afternoon.
The thinnest of trust in this city right now did not start.
A black body gets shot down in this city. This is a corrupt city. That's right. Have no fear.
The entire Zionist is here. You understand me? You won't be able to talk today because I'm
going to keep talking because I was born to talk my talk and walk my walk to. I told these young
people back here on my way here that we have the power not that batch not that weapon. We have
the power. All right. You've been watching a news conference with the Madison police department
and Madison mayor as you saw protesters interrupted that news conference while John Patterson was
speaking. Once again this is an update on Wednesday's deadly police shooting on Williamson Street.
Chief Patterson himself commented on the trauma that area has experienced and you saw some of that
there. Once again on Wednesday afternoon police said an officer shot and killed Corey Ruiz after
police say he was armed with a knife and injured another officer trying to detain him. Chief Patterson
says the DCI will eventually release the name of the officer who shot Ruiz and he says he hopes
it's soon. We will continue to have team coverage today on news right now four five and six plus
our website channel 3000.com. Earlier if you're just joining us Madison mayor Satya Rhodes Conway
began this news conference by offering support. She mentioned that people can call the 988
lifeline if they need to talk about anything. And there is a community listening session that
is coming up that they touched on that we will tell you more about in our coverage.
So and she also said as a city community and society we have to do better. This is bringing
up a lot of feelings of course. We're not that far removed from 2020's Black Lives Matter protests
and we will have much more on this from all sides of this investigation coming up a news
we now live at four five six and ten back to your regular programming.
Very comfortable under 60 it was so nice yesterday as far as the weather went
little breezy but temps and dew points were nice that'll stick around for today and tomorrow
then they jump up Saturday Sunday and Monday those dew points approach 70 to even 75 degrees.
We will have the moisture to work with for potential stronger storms Sunday into Monday
specifically are the days that we're watching for severe weather chances. Madison's not the
bullseye let's like go clear that area or even Hayward Wisconsin but this is for most of the
state of Wisconsin and Minnesota the 15% chance of severe weather so as long as everything comes
together Sunday could be a busy day and then also Monday although the threat is pretty much
better to our southeast but still a lot of central and southern Wisconsin included in that 15
percent chance and again this is high when you're looking