On July 22, 2026, a Madison police officer shot and killed a Black man in his 30s in the city's Marquette neighborhood. Hours after the shooting, the Madison police chief still had not publicly released the victim's name — and no body camera footage had been made available to the public.

Police Chief John Patterson said the man drew a large fixed-blade knife while officers attempted to arrest him. But multiple eyewitnesses standing feet from the scene tell a different story.

Richard Hegwood, who watched from his home at the intersection, said he watched the man get taken to the ground: "I never saw a weapon. He never brandished a weapon."

A second witness, Michael Doubek, described watching an officer shoot the man three times while he was already on the ground. "From where I was standing 10 feet away, that looked an awful lot like an execution to me," Doubek said, according to WPR.

The Wisconsin Department of Justice is conducting an investigation, but a state probe overseen by the same government that employs the officers involved is not enough. This community deserves a fully independent investigation, the immediate release of all body camera footage, and the public acknowledgment of the victim by name.

This shooting happened blocks from where Madison police killed 19-year-old Tony Robinson in 2015. That officer was never charged. The neighborhood is still carrying that loss.

"Another Black man is dead on a Madison street, and our community watched him die before we even knew his name," said Brandi Grayson, executive director of Urban Triage, a Black community advocacy organization in Madison. "That is the cruelty of state violence."

Madison cannot keep offering condolences without accountability. Sign the petition to demand an independent investigation, the immediate release of body camera footage, and the public naming of this victim.