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Former Milwaukee Police Officer Won’t Be Charged in Death of Black Man in Park

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Official Says Shooting Was Justified

The Milwaukee district attorney, John T. Chisholm, said that a former police officer, Christopher Manney, who fatally shot an unarmed black man, Dontre Hamilton, would not be charged in the episode.

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The Milwaukee district attorney, John T. Chisholm, said that a former police officer, Christopher Manney, who fatally shot an unarmed black man, Dontre Hamilton, would not be charged in the episode.CreditCredit...Morry Gash/Associated Press

MILWAUKEE — In a case that echoed growing tension over race and policing in other cities, a former Milwaukee police officer who fatally shot an African-American man this year will not face criminal charges, a prosecutor announced on Monday.

Nearly eight months after the death of Dontre D. Hamilton, Milwaukee County’s district attorney concluded that the officer, Christopher Manney, who is white, was defending himself when he shot and killed Mr. Hamilton in April. Witnesses said Mr. Hamilton had grabbed the officer’s baton during an encounter in a downtown park and hit the officer with it or was attempting to, the prosecutor found. Officer Manney fired at least 13, perhaps 14 times.

“This was a tragic incident for the Hamilton family and for the community,” John T. Chisholm, the district attorney, wrote in a 25-page presentation, which was accompanied by lengthy appendices, released on Monday morning. “But, based on all the evidence and analysis presented in this report, I come to the conclusion that Officer Manney’s use of force in this incident was justified self-defense and that defense cannot be reasonably overcome to establish a basis to charge Officer Manney with a crime.”

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Dontre HamiltonCredit...Uncredited/Family photo courtesy of Dameion Perkins, via Associated Press

In this city, where the case had led to growing protests in recent weeks even before the decision was announced, members of Mr. Hamilton’s family said they were deeply disappointed and seeking a federal investigation. The United States attorney’s office for Eastern District of Wisconsin said Monday that the Justice Department would review the case.

Law enforcement officials, bracing for more demonstrations after one that blocked an Interstate highway in the Milwaukee area over the weekend, got an executive order from Gov. Scott Walker for the Wisconsin National Guard to stand by, and local leaders called for calm.

“It is my hope that these protests, if they continue — and I anticipate that they will continue — remain peaceful,” Tom Barrett, the mayor of Milwaukee, said at a news conference. Mr. Barrett also noted the shooting deaths of two police officers in New York over the weekend, adding: “We cannot allow all police officers in this nation, all police officers in this city, to be demonized. This is the time for peace.”

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Christopher ManneyCredit...Milwaukee Police Department, via Associated Press

For months, supporters of Mr. Hamilton had called for charges against Mr. Manney, who was fired from the city police force after the shooting, and anger over the case gained momentum after the mounting protests that followed the deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., and Eric Garner in New York City. In a largely white state, 40 percent of Milwaukee’s nearly 600,000 residents are black, and some here have called for a more diversified police force and changes in the way police use of force is overseen. About 35 percent of the Milwaukee’s force of 1,900 are minorities, officials said.

The case in Milwaukee “along with the decisions in Ferguson and in New York City have caused many in our society across racial lines to question our system of justice,” James H. Hall Jr., president of the Milwaukee N.A.A.C.P., said on Monday.

Mr. Hamilton’s death was investigated by an outside agency, the Wisconsin Department of Justice Division of Criminal Investigation, as required by a recently enacted state law that, in essence, bars a police department from investigating itself in such cases. The prosecutor also sought guidance from a lieutenant with the Greenfield Police Department as well as Emanuel Kapelsohn, of the Peregrine Corporation, whom he described as a leading national expert in use-of-force reviews. Mr. Kapelsohn submitted his report last week, Mr. Chisholm said.

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Dontre Hamilton’s mother, Maria Hamilton, center, and brothers Dameion Perkins, left, and Nate Hamilton leading a protest on Monday in Milwaukee.Credit...Morry Gash/Associated Press

The shooting occurred on the afternoon of April 30 after the police received calls from workers at a coffee kiosk in Red Arrow Park downtown about a man sleeping nearby on the ground. A pair of officers twice answered the calls, and determined, according to the prosecutor’s report, that the man, Mr. Hamilton, was not disturbing anyone.

A short time later, Officer Manney, who had apparently received a voice mail message about the situation, went to the park. After he approached Mr. Hamilton, asked him to stand and began a “pat-down frisk” of Mr. Hamilton, there was a struggle. The officer said that Mr. Hamilton had lunged and tried to hit him, and that they then struggled over the officer’s wooden baton.

“The use of deadly force against Dontre Hamilton was not a choice P.O. Manney made voluntarily, but was instead a defensive action forced upon him by Dontre Hamilton’s deadly attack with a police baton,” Mr. Chisholm wrote, quoting from Mr. Kapelsohn’s findings.

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John Chisholm, the Milwaukee County district attorney, at a news conference Monday in Milwaukee about the killing of Dontre Hamilton by a police officer.Credit...Morry Gash/Associated Press

Numerous witnesses were there, and some said they had seen Mr. Hamilton trying to hit the officer with the baton.

Mr. Chisholm said it might have taken just three or four seconds to fire as many as 14 shots. “The wound locations and wound paths through the deceased’s body are consistent with shots fired at an attacker who is first advancing toward the officer, then turning and falling.” Mr. Chisholm wrote, quoting Mr. Kapelsohn’s analysis.

Officer Manney was fired from the Police Department on Oct. 15 after the Milwaukee police chief, Edward Flynn, announced a review of the April confrontation had been completed. The officer was not fired for firing his weapon, but for what the chief described as an “out-of-policy pat down” of Mr. Hamilton that Chief Flynn said “was not based on individualized reasonable suspicion but on an assumption of his mental state and housing status.”

In an interview, Chief Flynn said a key issue “lost in an attempt to make it fit into the national narrative was that this incident was about handling a person in mental health crisis and either doing it the right way or the wrong way.”

An attorney for the Hamilton family said Mr. Hamilton, who was 31, had a diagnosed mental illness but was not homeless and had regular contact with his family. “As a family we deserve the truth,” Mr. Hamilton’s brother Nate said in an interview. “They’re telling us this report is everything, but there’s way more information we don’t have.”

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section A, Page 14 of the New York edition with the headline: Former Milwaukee Police Officer Won’t Be Charged in Death of Black Man in Park. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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