Former officer Dominique Heaggan-Brown shot Sylville Smith after a brief foot chase.
Dominique Heaggan-Brown, the former Wisconsin police officer who fatally shot Sylville Smith during an August 2016 foot chase, was found not guilty of first-degree reckless homicide on Wednesday.
The shooting death sparked days of unrest in Milwaukee.
Heaggan-Brown fatally shot Smith as the suspect attempted to surrender, a prosecutor argued in the reckless homicide trial of the former Milwaukee police officer.
But the former officer’s attorney countered that his client made a split-second decision to protect his life and that of another officer.
Less than a year after Smith’s death sparked days of unrest in northwest Milwaukee, a jury resumed deliberations Wednesday in the trial of the former officer who fired the fatal shots.
Heaggan-Brown, 25, could face 60 years in prison if he’s convicted.
Body-camera video from another officer — played for the jury last week — showed that Heaggan-Brown shot a second bullet into Smith’s chest after the suspect hurled his weapon over a fence and had his hands near his head. Smith was on the ground when he received the fatal shot.
The jury heard closing arguments and deliberated about five hours Tuesday.
“Mr. Heaggan-Brown knew at the time he fired that second shot that Sylville Smith had already disarmed himself,” Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm told the jury, CNN affiliate WISN-TV reported.
The family of Sylville Smith was shown body camera footage in court on June 15, 2017 showing the brief chase that ended with death of Sylvillle Smith at the hands of a Wisconsin police officer Dominique Heaggan-Brown.
“He knew that Sylville Smith was attempting to surrender.”
But defense attorney Jonathan Smith argued his client followed training and fired the second, fatal shot because he believed his life was in danger.
“The state admits that the first shot was a justified shot,” the lawyer told the jury, according to the station.
“And our argument is that justification did not change over the course of 1.69 seconds between shots,”
The defense rested Monday after calling its lone witness, Robert Willis, an expert in police use of force, according to WISN.
Willis testified that Heaggan-Brown acted in “accordance with his training,” CNN affiliate WTMJ-TV reported.
His testimony centered on the 1.69 seconds separating the two shots. He testified the officer’s decision to fire again was made before he even pulled the trigger. The second shot was justified, Willis told the jury, because officers are trained to assume a suspect may have more than one weapon.
Heaggan-Brown experienced the encounter in “real time,” not in frame-by-frame motion as it was shown to the jury, Willis said, according to WTMJ.
“So when we see the trigger being pulled, we have to not consider that the moment of decision,” he said. “It’s not. We have to go back — and I can’t tell exactly how many frames but we have to go back two-tenths or three-tenths of a second — we have to go back several frames … to delve into the decision-making process that goes into firing this shot.”
Willis, who wrote the use of force manual used by Milwaukee police officers, told the jury that Heaggan-Brown justifiably responded to a “deadly threat,” WISN reported.
Last week, members of Sylville Smith’s family gasped as body camera footage of the August 13 foot chase was played in court.
The reaction to the video, including sobs from Smith’s family, caused the judge to clear the courtroom. The defense attorney called for a mistrial, saying the family’s response could influence the jury, according to CNN affiliate WITI-TV. Judge Jeffrey Conen denied the request.
Officer fired over a different investigation
The shooting sparked days of unrest in the Sherman Park section of Milwaukee, a city long torn by racial tensions.
Heaggan-Brown was later fired from the department in an unrelated sexual assault investigation.
Prosecutors said his first shot was justified, but not the second, according to WISN.
Heaggan-Brown’s former partner, Ndiva Malafa, testified last week they were chasing Smith, 23, because they saw he had a gun.
“I saw Mr. Smith exit the vehicle. I observed the firearm and at that point, we made eye contact. At that moment, I believe I started to — I see him running northeast. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Heaggan-Brown chase him as well,” Malafa testified, WITI reported.
Malafa’s body camera footage was played several times in court, according to WTMJ. Malafa also guided the jury through the footage frame by frame, the station reported.
The video picks up as Malafa jumps out of this squad car. The shaky footage shows him trailing behind Heaggan-Brown, who is chasing Smith. The suspect ran across a lawn, turned a corner and headed toward a fence but slipped before reaching it.
Smith was armed with a Glock .40-caliber Model 22 semi-automatic handgun with an extended magazine containing 23 rounds.
An autopsy showed that Smith had a gunshot wound through his upper right arm and another to his right upper chest.
In the body camera audio, which was activated 30 seconds after the shooting, Heaggan-Brown was heard yelling at Smith: “Stop reaching.” He moved Smith’s hand away from his waist, the criminal complaint said.
Heaggan-Brown had previously said he believed Smith “was reaching for his waist so he discharged his weapon a second time.”
In an interview with WITI, Smith’s brother Sedan said: “It’s the longest 30 seconds of my life to be able to just watch the video.”
Heaggan-Brown is the third US law enforcement officer to be tried for a shooting in the last week.
On Friday, Minnesota police Officer Jeronimo Yanez was acquitted of one count of second-degree manslaughter and two counts of intentional discharge of firearm that endangers safety for the fatal shooting of Philando Castile during a traffic stop last year.
In Cincinnati, a jury began deliberations Monday in the retrial of former University of Cincinnati police officer Ray Tensing in the fatal shooting of a motorist during a July 2015 traffic stop.
