Former Milwaukee police officer charged in fatal shooting of Sylville Smith

Dominique Heaggan-Brown, the former Milwaukee police officer that shot and killed Syville Smith, has been charged with reckless homicide.

Heaggan-Brown fired a fatal shot after Syville Smith had already tossed his weapon, body camera video shows.

Sylville Smith

Smith had been armed with a Glock .40 caliber model 22 semi-auto handgun with an extended magazine but Heaggan-Brown’s body camera showed he threw the weapon into an adjacent yard as he was shot the first time, the complaint said.

A review of both Heaggan-Brown’s body camera and (the other officer’s) camera confirm that Smith was unarmed at the time of the second shot,” said the complaint filed by the Milwaukee District Attorney’s office.

Heaggan-Brown, who was fired after a sexual assault investigation in a separate case, was charged Thursday with first-degree reckless homicide. If convicted, he faces a maximum prison sentence of 60 years in the fatal shooting of the 23-year-old, whose death sparked days of unrest in the Wisconsin city.

The fatal shooting of Syville Smith, who was running from a traffic stop, caused civil unrest and protests in the city of Milwaukee for days.

Syville Smith, described by family as a caring father, a loyal friend and popular dancer in Milwaukee’s thriving hip-hop scene, was known to Dominique Heaggan-Brown before the fatal encounter in August, Smith’s relatives and friends said at the time.

The news comes as a start toward justice as many activists push for criminal justice reform when it comes to policing, especially in black and brown communities.