Who Is Dominique Heaggan-Brown? Sylville Smith Milwaukee Police Shooting Update: Officer Charged In Fatal Traffic Stop

A former Milwaukee police officer was charged Thursday with reckless homicide in the shooting death of a man who ran away from a traffic stop last summer. Sylville Smith was shot to death Aug. 13, touching off two nights of violent demonstrations in the city.

Prosecutors charged Officer Dominique Heaggan-Brown, with first-degree reckless homicide in the fatal on-duty shooting of Smith. Police Chief Edward Flynn said body camera footage showed Smith, 23, who had a concealed carry permit, was armed at the time of the shooting and when he was shot, was turning toward Heaggan-Brown, 24.

Smith suffered a single gunshot to the chest and one to the right arm, an autopsy report showed. A gun, which had been reported stolen in a March robbery, was recovered at the scene, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.

The Wisconsin Department of Justice Division of Criminal Investigation was investigating the shooting. The evidence was turned over to Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm.

Eight businesses were burned and six police cars damaged in two nights of unrest in the Sherman Park neighborhood following Smith’s shooting. At least four officers were injured and two teens shot in separate incidents during the melee. Damage was placed in the millions of dollars.

After the rioting, observers blamed the violent protests on decades of segregation and poverty in Milwaukee.

Smith had a lengthy arrest record but no felony convictions, making it legal for him to have a gun, the Journal Sentinel said.

WITI, Milwaukee, reported Smith and Heaggan-Brown knew each other from high school.

In October, Heaggan-Brown was charged in a sexual assault case involving a man in a bar who said the officer bragged he could do whatever he wanted without repercussions. Heaggan-Brown was fired from the city's police force in late October.

Heaggan-Brown and his partner, Peter R. Hauser, also face an excessive force claim stemming from an April 15 traffic stop.

Heaggan-Brown initially was hired by the police department as an aide in 2010 and became a sworn officer in 2013.