Updated

Updated · WLS-TV · Jul 23

About 20 Protesters Disrupt Madison Police Briefing on 38-Year-Old Corey Ruiz Shooting

Updated

Updated · WLS-TV · Jul 23

About 20 Protesters Disrupt Madison Police Briefing on 38-Year-Old Corey Ruiz Shooting

Q: If an independent monitor is denied evidence, who is actually overseeing the police investigation?

If Madison’s independent police monitor is being denied evidence, the investigation is still formally being overseen by the Wisconsin Department of Criminal Investigation, not by the monitor’s office. In Corey Ruiz’s case, the state DCI is conducting the required outside investigation into the police shooting. After DCI finishes, its findings typically go to the Dane County District Attorney, which decides whether criminal charges are warranted. Separately, the Madison Police Department conducts its own internal administrative review of whether officers followed department policy. That means the independent monitor’s lack of access does not stop the official investigation, but it does weaken civilian oversight. Madison’s Office of the Independent Police Monitor is supposed to provide an external accountability check and can recommend charges, yet monitor Aeiramique Glass said police had not shared evidence or even the officer’s identity with her office. So, in practical terms, the case is being overseen by state investigators, then prosecutors, while the police department retains control over its internal review. The gap is that the city’s civilian watchdog cannot fully verify or challenge what those institutions are doing in real time if it is blocked from the evidence. That is why critics say the issue is not whether someone is investigating, but whether the investigation is being independently and transparently scrutinized.

3 articles · Updated · WLS-TV · Jul 23

Roughly 20 protesters stormed a Madison police news conference Thursday, seized the microphone from Chief John Patterson and turned the briefing on Corey Durell Ruiz's death into a shouting match.
Ruiz, 38, a homeless resident, was shot and killed Wednesday after police said he fled on a bike, resisted arrest and injured an officer with a knife during a struggle in the Marquette neighborhood.
Four officers involved were placed on administrative leave as the Wisconsin Department of Criminal Investigation takes over; Patterson said none wore body cameras, though bystander videos captured what sounded like three shots.
Madison's police monitor said police had not yet shared evidence or the shooter's identity with her office, while the mayor, governor and council president all called for transparency, accountability and a rigorous review.
The killing has revived scrutiny of Madison police after two fatal shootings in the same area in 2012 and 2015, and intensified pressure to approve a $400,000 body-camera rollout over three years.