The city of Milwaukee is set to pay a settlement of $450,000 three years after he was shot in the stomach by a police officer during his pursuit of another suspect. On Monday, Oct. 3, the Judiciary and Legislation Committee recommended approval of the six-figure for Tari Davis, an unarmed Black man shot by police officer Nikolas Zens in September of 2019 according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Davis filed a civil rights lawsuit against the city, then-Police Chief Alfonso Morales, Zen, and 13 other members of the force alleging officers violated his constitutional rights by shooting him, chaining him to a hospital bed while he was recovering from his injuries.
According to the criminal complaint, the incident on Sept. 8, 2019, when police attempted to pull over Kevin Brown for running a red light. The officers chased the then-22-year-old for 14 miles for 19 minutes at over 80 mph.
Once Brown crashed his vehicle he got out ran to Davis’ back door. Once Zens who was chasing Brown, enters the yard to find Brown standing with Davis the officer shoots at the two men, striking Davis in the stomach.
The officer claims he believed the men were armed, however, it was proven they were not. In 2021, Davis released on his website a 50-second bodycam clip of the encounter. The video shows the moment Brown runs to Davis while he is standing by the backdoor. Zens can be heard telling Brown to stop and show his hands. Then officer then fires, injuring Davis.
“I got to my back door, and it swings towards me, I looked down to see who the person was then I looked up there’s the flash, gunfire, I’m feeling the pain, I’m hurting, it’s excruciating pain going on at that moment,” Davis explained.
Zens hasn’t been criminally charged by the Milwaukee County prosecutors for the shooting and in February 2020 District Attorney John Chisholm said in a letter Zens’ belief he was in danger has not been disproven.
Morales still terminated Zens’ employment with the department. Zens had worked for one and a half years in the department before the incident.
Davis says his 14-year-old daughter was also “forcefully and violently” slammed to the ground and detained for seven hours in result of the encounter. Now the Common Council has to accept the proposed settlement on an Oct 11th meeting. The City Attorney’s Office wrote a letter to the council saying they would like the settlement to be done quickly and recommended the $450K payment to Davis.
Link to original The Black Detour