Madison’s officer involved shooting – observations and admonitions 

On Wednesday afternoon in Madison Wisconsin, a police officer fatally shot a suspect who was resisting arrest while armed with a fixed blade knife. The suspect reportedly cut or stabbed an officer while resisting arrest, and that officer fired three shots that killed the suspect.

The officer involved shooting (OIS) was captured on video by a bystander. The suspect was a black male, and the involved officers included three white males and a white female.  The difference in race was immediately raised by activists to suggest, without evidence, that the shooting was racially motivated and unjustified.

I would normally not weigh in on an OIS that happened out of state, but the reaction and the road that officials in Madison appear to be heading down closely resemble Minneapolis in 2020. A few observations and admonitions seem appropriate.

Background

Citizens called Madison police to check for a black male who was reportedly entering parked cars and who may have attempted to enter an occupied home in the area. 

When police arrived in the area they located the suspect, later identified as Corey Ruiz, 38. Ruiz fled from officers on a bicycle.  Officers were able to catch up to Ruiz and attempted to physically restrain him in the street – this is where the available citizen video begins. Madison police do not currently have body worn cameras, so that perspective will not be available in this case. 

The available video, taken from a vantage point approximately 20 feet behind Ruiz, shows three male police officers struggling with Ruiz. One officer had Ruiz’s left arm, one officer was holding Ruiz’s torso from behind, and one officer had Ruiz’s right arm.

The male officer holding Ruiz’s right arm appeared to yell “he’s got a knife” 3 times. A female officer approached and drew her Taser, yelling “Taser, Taser, Taser” to warn of her intent to deploy her Taser to immobilize the Ruiz. 

Approximately 4 seconds after the male officer is heard warning his partners that Ruiz had a knife, the female officer fired two apparent Taser shots, which can be heard on the video, at Ruiz’s front torso. Ruiz, who was still struggling and being held by several officers, began going to the ground – though he did not appear to seize up and become rigid which is the common reaction when a Taser deployment is successful.

Approximately 2.5 seconds after the Taser shots can be heard, the male officer who had been holding Ruiz’s right arm moved in front of Ruiz, drew his firearm and fired a quick burst of three shots into Ruiz’s front torso area.  He then quickly re-holstered and moved forward to secure Ruiz’s left arm.  Ruiz was no longer resistant. The officer who had been behind Ruiz also moved in and retrieved a knife from the area just in front of where Ruiz lay, moving it a few feet away to the left.

 A picture of the knife was made available by the Madison Police Department (MPD) and can be seen here:

A statement by the MPD on Wednesday indicated that the same officer who had fired the shots at Ruiz had been cut or stabbed by Ruiz during the attempt to arrest him. It’s unclear what the extent of the injury was.

Officers attempted to perform life saving measures on Ruiz. Ruiz was transported to the hospital and was later pronounced dead.

The MPD immediately requested the Wisconsin Department of Justice, Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI) to conduct an independent investigation, which is standard protocol for OIS’s across the country in 2026.

Ruiz’s background

It has been reported that Ruiz has a history of approximately 40 criminal convictions, 12 of which were felonies. More than one of the convictions involved assaulting and/or resisting officers. Ruiz had an active warrant for his arrest for violating parole conditions following his most recent release from prison. Ruiz was reportedly homeless.

Photo courtesy of the Wisconsin Department of Corrections

While his background is informative, it does not formally play into whether the use of deadly force was justified or not. It does help paint the complete picture of what the officers were dealing with on Wednesday – and that shouldn’t be lost in all the noise.

Admonition

First, let me say what should be obvious, but unfortunately isn’t for far too many. We don’t have all the information. Much of what we know comes from the perspective of a single citizen video taken from a single perspective.

The DCI needs time to conduct a thorough investigation of the entire event, from all perspectives. The most important perspective will come from the officer who used deadly force, and his detailed explanation of the things he knew, saw, felt, and experienced which led to his decision to use deadly force will be evaluated by legal authorities.  Those legal authorities, likely attorneys with the Dane County Attorney’s Office, will determine if his actions were reasonable under Wisconsin law governing use of deadly force by law enforcement.

That law, in part, reads:

A law enforcement officer is authorized to use force that is objectively reasonable based on the totality of the circumstances, including:

1. The severity of the alleged crime at issue.

2. Whether the suspect poses an imminent threat to the safety of law enforcement officers or others.

3. Whether the suspect is actively resisting or attempting to evade arrest by flight.

(c) Deadly force. A law enforcement officer may use deadly force only as a last resort when the law enforcement officer reasonably believes that all other options have been exhausted or would be ineffective. A law enforcement officer may use deadly force only to stop behavior that has caused or imminently threatens to cause death or great bodily harm to the law enforcement officer or another person. If both practicable and feasible, a law enforcement officer shall give a verbal warning before using deadly force.

Unfortunately for Madison, for the involved police officers, and for the broader Wisconsin law enforcement community there are already efforts to undermine the process by rushing to judgement. As a result, Madison appears to be heading for trouble much like Minneapolis did in 2020, and if leaders don’t turn things around quickly Madison is likely to find itself with an understaffed police department that struggles to recruit and retain officers, and marked deterioration in public safety.

Leader’s statements

The city of Madison held a press conference yesterday to update the public on events surrounding the OIS. It was a disaster. The conference was taken over by an activist who forced the police chief away from the podium, offering a textbook example of how not to respond.

First, the comments made by the officials who spoke portrayed Ruiz as a promising citizen had been targeted for assassination by officers.  Not a single mention was made of Ruiz’s criminal history. Only the police chief made any mention of Ruiz’s possession of a knife or the danger that he presented to the public and to officers.

Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway, Madison’s “first openly LGBTQ+ mayor,” included in her statement this oversimplified and biased message:

“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.”

Really mayor – never, under any circumstance? 

Then the City Council President, Sabrina Madison, shared her thoughts after watching the video of the shooting.

“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.”

Then the Chief of Police, John Patterson, spoke.  Chief Patterson unfortunately collapsed in his role as the leader of the police department.

His demeanor was pained and passive. His remarks were peppered with sighs as he slouched and focused down at the podium or the ground. The lack of command presence was simply, sad.

Rather than comment on the difficult day his department had Wednesday, the challenges Ruiz created or provide an update on the condition of his officers, Chief Patterson chose to lament that a “member of the community” had lost his life during an encounter with his officers.  About Ruiz, whose family had allowed him to be homeless and whom the community had been forced to call 911 for help from, Chief Patterson said:

I know he had a family who cared for him, and I know he had a community that cared for him.”

Then just 6 minutes into his comments, the chief passively allowed an activist to literally force him away from the podium and take over the press conference for 15 minutes – calling Patterson’s officers “pigs” and demanding their immediate arrest.

It was one of the most feckless responses I’ve seen by a law enforcement leader – one deserving his serious consideration of resignation. The performance has no doubt destroyed any respect Madison police officers had for their chief, and that could cascade into serious problems for the agency and for public safety in Madison going forward.

Unrelated to the press conference, far too many Wisconsin politicians and candidates have also inappropriately weighed in on the shooting.

State Rep. Francesca Hong (D-Madison) and a 2026 gubernatorial candidate:
“This was an execution… this is state-sanctioned violence.”

State Rep. Shelia Stubbs (D-Madison):

“I am deeply saddened and disturbed to hear of the death of Corey Ruiz… This never should have happened. Mr. Ruiz should still be alive.”

State Senator Chris Larson (D-Milwaukee):

“This tragedy is yet another example of how far we still have to go to create a society where all human life is valued.”

Ineffective restraint – the social justice effect

I hate to be critical of the officers, but they failed to use the proper level of aggression needed to quickly secure Ruiz. In simple terms, they needed to “turn it on” and they didn’t – probably because they’ve been threatened with discipline for use of force situations that result in a complaint. This is the last thing officers need to be thinking about during a dangerous situation.

I don’t raise this issue as a comment on whether the OIS was justified, or not. It is also NOT meant to absolve Ruiz of his own actions which created the need for a deadly force response.

The comment is made to point out that the social justice movement to restrict officer’s use of physical force, and the training and policies that now prohibit officers from using strikes, their body weight, head and neck restraints, or other effective techniques has ultimately put officers, arrestees, and the public in more jeopardy. This can be linked to the over-reaction coming out of the George Floyd case, and its unfortunate.

Whether it was a lack of training or concerns over excessive force accusations, the officer’s ineffective restraint of Ruiz allowed Ruiz to escalate the threat which then forced officers into a deadly force response. This is a cyclical dilemma that has been created by the social justice crowd – a dilemma that has failed to achieve it’s intended goal, while heaving horrible consequences on law enforcement when things escalate.

The fictional Barney Fife was right when he stressed the need to “nip it in the bud.”

Takeaway

The court, correctional, and human services systems have failed to do their jobs in Wisconsin and elsewhere in the US – allowing people like Corey Ruiz to be on the streets despite a lifetime of criminal behavior and dysfunction.  

Tragically, these failures land in the laps of our law enforcement officers time and time again. Despite the challenges posed, officers are overwhelmingly successful in their encounter with these people – many whom have burned every bridge in their lives, including family and various system supports. Yet, it’s the officers who are forced to take all of the risks and accept all the responsibility when encounters don’t resolve peaceably. 

Smart locales recognize this. They unapologetically support their law enforcement. Their courts ensure officers are covered by qualified immunity. They recognize the near impossible job they ask of their officers, and know their officers are deserving of understanding, support, and gratitude, not instant condemnation.

Keep an eye on Madison in the coming days, months and years.  Will it learn from the experiences of Minneapolis and reject the urge to “dismantle law enforcement as we know it,” or will the social justice warriors prevail and usher in decades of disfunction and disorder?