Steadily increasing rain and chilly wind greeted the Hamilton family and about 75 other protesters who gathered at noon on April 30 at North 27th and West Center streets for a march downtown to Red Arrow Park to commemorate the second anniversary of the shooting of Dontre Hamil- ton, a 31-year-old man with a history of mental illness. Hamilton was shot 14 times on April 30, 2014 by former Milwaukee Police Officer Christopher Manney after a ‘pat down’ search turned into a physical altercation.
Manney was fired by the Milwaukee Police Depart- ment for not following proper procedure, but local, state and federal prosecuilton and that police depart- ment policies contributed to Dontre Hamilton’s death.
After arriving at the park, family and other supporters paused for 14 seconds of silence, one second for each time Hamilton was shot.
During the march a num- ber of protestors carried signs demanding more legal accountability from police when citizens are killed or injured. Others carried signs that included the phrase “Black Lives Matter.”
Dontre’s brother, Nate Hamilton, thanked so many people for coming out to remember his brother. The family had organized an 8-hour festival event featurtors declined to bring crimi- nal charges against him. The Hamilton family filed a fed- eral civil rights lawsuit con- tending that Manney unlaw- fully detained Dontre Haming music, poetry, games for children, food and talks by Nate Hamilton and others, but attendance was probably affected by the weather.
Nate Hamilton said he hoped to have families gath- er on each anniversary of his brother’s death. “On this day, we want to honor Dontre,” he said as reported by WISN- TV 12 News. “We want to also honor other people who have lost their life to police violence,” he said. The event was also meant to send an alert to Milwaukee leaders, Hamilton said. “But it’s also a call out to our city to say, hey, we need to stop taking each other’s lives. We need to stop hurting one another, start loving each other,” he said.
