We've been doing Zoom interviews but felt what took place here last night is of such importance to the community to understand what took place what the Madison Police Department is doing in response in our call to others in the community to help us that we thought we should do a news conference right here where the gunfire took place last night chief Wall we'll talk to you and we also have a captain Friedman captain Jason Friedman. He's the captain of the Midtown District. This is his district, so he'll also be able to. As well, so if you'd like to start. Extra I've got in just a few introductory comments and then I'll answer any questions that people might have and some of it is just sort of rehash of sort of a summary of what happened last night. so a group of people gathered here in Gardner Park at the pavilion as a celebration of life for Maurice Bowman and Mister Bowman is a victim of one of our recent homicides that happened here in Madison. there were. Hundred people presents family members, friends and children in the pavilion here our officers were aware of this and we're monitoring from a distance, but we're not directly present or involved in the gathering around 90 'clock a few minutes after 90 'clock officers in the area reported hearing gunfire and surely thereafter a number of 911 calls followed. also reporting gunfire here in the Park most of the group began to flee from the pavilion to escape the gunfire and it was a Seen as our officers. responded in people were fleeing into the neighborhoods hiding in backyards hiding behind trees. trying to escape the shooting and while this is happening in our officers are immediately responding to the Park to look for injured parties and to look for suspects involved in the shooting during the chaos one MPD squad was struck by another vehicle as it was fleeing the scene. So officers subsequently searched the entire Park looking for victims looking for suspects and looking for evidence and ultimately three individuals were found to have been shot as a result of the incident there were two others sustained gunshot related injuries. the three gunshot victims were a 24 year-old male who was shot in the leg, a 40 year old female shot in the leg and a 32 year-old male shot in the foot and We're obviously very early in the investigation, but it appears that the main group was gathered here in the pavilion multiple suspects approached on foot and opened fire into the crowd. our officers recovered three firearms here in the Park and more than 60 shell casings were recovered multiple firearms were used in the shooting including an AK, 40 - seven style assault Aftermath Two people were arrested 20 -, three year old male who was charged with being a felon in position of a firearm, resisting an officer and possession of THC and a 24 year-old male who had a warrant for probation Violation. The MPD Violent Crime unit is leading the investigation and an investigation is continuing and just a few broader points. as you've heard me talking over the last few weeks, the That we're seeing here in Madison is really I would say in an unprecedented level just in the last month. we've had almost 50 shots fired incidents 350 - five shell casings recovered, which is almost as many as we recovered all of last year 11 people in the last month have been struck by bullets and includes one fatality and it includes a nine year old that was hit by a Ricochet bullet on the East side. We've And homes struck by gunfire shootings between vehicles on public streets in broad daylight. and every metric year to date if you look as of last week in terms of shots, fired and gun violence, it's just off the charts up to 87 percent from last year at this time of last week, the number of incidents the number of injuries the number of cases recovered it's really striking that That we're seeing here over the last few months now I clearly think that this level of gun violence is something that we should not accept in our community. we're gonna continue to do our part. We're gonna investigate these crimes. We're gonna do what we can to hold the suspects accountable and to provide a sense of Justice for victims and their families. We're also gonna do our part and work with community stakeholders to. And intervention and we'll continue to do that to the extent we're capable moving forward. Now, I certainly encourage all community leaders organizations and residents to really be unified and speak out against gun violence in our community. I think it's important that we have a unified voice as we do that. And if you have in terms of a more specific response, if you have information about last night's shooting or any of the other shootings that we're investigating, please contact us. contact Crime Stoppers and help us do our jobs. I also you know I wanna reach out to the people directly involved in this gun, violence or people who know those involved in this gun violence and really urge people to take a step back and stop you. We all share this community. We all want the same thing, which is to live in safety and if we're not able to do our jobs and if people are not able to mourn the death of someone who died as a result of gun violence, it doesn't speak well for our community right now the last thing that I will say is that obviously, this has been a very difficult period for MPD and for policing the the stream that our Department is under over the last few months. Colbert, 19, with protests and with this spike in gun violence has really been remarkable and the strain that our officers are under is unprecedented and they continue to show up every day and do their work under extremely difficult circumstances in the last week, Officers responded to just a horrific gruesome scene on the West side where they discovered a 13 year-old homicide victim. And just a horrible circumstances and last night officers in the area immediately moved into the Park in a tremendously chaotic situation with active gunfire going on in order to locate victims, render aid and apprehend suspects as officers moved into the Park they actually could see muzzle flashes inside the Park for ongoing gunfire so our our officers continue to really be dedicated. And the work that they're doing every day and I think it's really a testament to their professionalism and commitment to the community. So with that, I will open it up to any questions that people might have how long how long before this event was this Department aware that on the order of 300 people, we're going to be in and around this pavilion in a time where we have a public health order that restricts. Well, there was nothing that we were aware of ahead of time really at some point during the night, we received some noise complaints about it. I believe in officers came to the area to and observe it, but it was nothing that was a planned and permitted event. certainly so you have no intelligence from social media or otherwise that in the wake of that homicide last month with that victim that there was gonna be this outpouring in that kind of a size here at this Park out here at this. Officers have taken action. For those for violation of the gathering and the lack of. Well, I think. you know I think we have to be very strategic and wise about how we are intervening and taking actions you know when when our officers ultimately moved into the Park after the shooting that happened, there was a fair amount of hostility and a lack of cooperation from the group and certainly with the environment we're operating in now, I don't think it would be a wise decision to force some sort of conflict over a public health order to be honest with you. Entirely understand your sentiments of remarks related to an event that was intended as a as a memorial we've had dozens and dozens of people die in Dane County since the pandemic began and appears to be one of the few times that a memorial of that size took place does this mean going forward that if two or 300 people gathered in a public place in Madison that the police Department? Will not engage them in any way to even encourage them encourage them to that they disperse well. I think we're gonna view every single incident on a case-by-case basis, obviously over the last two months while while we've been midst of this pandemic, we've had a protest activity virtually every day with large groups and large crowds, and I think certainly it would not be wise from a number of perspectives to try to disperse groups that are exerci. Activity and certainly a group that's trying to mourn the death of somebody I think I would I don't have any question about the officer's decision not to engage or try to break up that crowd. I think that's entirely appropriate and I I think the potential of officers moving into a hostile group to endorse a public health order. I think would not be very wise in my in my view. Do you think that Because? That they stop it from becoming something potentially far worse. Well, I think it's hard to say you know, I think we'll have to wait until we get further in the investigation to to know exactly you know more about the mechanics of how things took place, but certainly officers were here virtually immediately we're visible almost immediately and I think frankly when you look at you know there's some social media video out there that I suspect you, you folks have all seen. And you can see how densely packed this pavilion was and you can hear. the quantity of gunfire going on and the fact that there are no fatalities are not a much higher level of injuries is something that you know, we're just lucky. We should all be grateful for cuz certainly this could have been a much more significant adverse outcome in terms of victims and fatalities and injuries you look at those overall numbers for the month or for the year and more. It was a fatality shot and killed a couple of weeks ago, and then you have that his memorial even more shots fired how do you piece together whether or not these events are related and how interconnected they are And with that being said, how do you move towards prevention and not just response to these events as we are looking at the next week to two weeks, Sure well, I think if you look at the larger body of shots fired incidents, we've had over the last few months. Certainly there are some clusters that appeared to be related with groups retaliating back and forth and that. Provide prevents challenge provides challenges to us to sort of prevent the next retaliation and prevent the next step. Now we do some things things on our end try to intervene and do some prevention. we work with community stakeholders like the focus Interruption Coalition and they try to do some of that prevention work and some you know intervention on their own. I think one of the challenges is that we're seeing more and more where we're not getting cooperation from witnesses and victims. Make it makes it more difficult for us to even identify people involved to even be able to take those steps to do intervention and prevention. so there isn't you know an easy answer to it. If there was you know everybody would be doing it. so but it's something we we work on and and content with every day to try to not just do the reactive investigative piece of it but to do the prevention in the front end work as well. so the blizzard this game violence. to well, you know for for those who have heard me talk about this before you know our shooting. Madison will often involve people that identified as being gang affiliated, but usually the underlying dispute is something else and that specifically gang related. I mean until we know more about any of these particular cases, I don't know that we can give a definitive answer to that. but this was obviously targeted towards people who are friends with this. Well, certainly all indications would be that this was not random and was very specific because of the group the event and because of what was taking place is it's still. Being hired. Well, I think the the the early indications are that there was nothing and it was if you look at the the videos you can see that it's it's really just sort of a a party a gathering, and then it goes like that to shots being fired from from outside. now. Obviously we don't have all the facts and we have a piece everything together, but it does not appear as if there's any sort of altercation or precipitating event. it looks like it was you know a planned event from the suspects that we're moving in or any of the individuals that showed up at the hospital and concerns suspects or. Took part in the gunfire. I don't have any information. I don't think so, but I don't know that we've I don't know that we've you know work through all that completely. at this point. you've identified the people who are arrested and say. I don't have that, but I think Joel's gonna update the incident report this afternoon to have the those names you mentioned the protest, but this was not a protest. This was a memorial. Do you believe the mayor public health officials, others withstand should reach out to the community and discourage gatherings of this size to try to help your men and women in blue. Well, I think you know whether it's we call it a protest or not it's certainly is The people certainly generally have a right to do as if they were doing First Amendment expression and I think it becomes very tricky for elected officials or the mayor's office to try to tell people how to engage in that behavior or not engage in it. I don't know that for months we've been told when loved ones perish you can't have 200 people at a funeral. you can't all be unmasked shoulder to shoulder you seem to be giving us a mixed message. Well, I don't think I. A mixed message you know what I've said, and what we're saying is that you know, we're generally not enforcing the order. We have very limited involvement in enforcing the public health order. I think it would have been you know unwise for public health or for MPD or the Park Rangers to go in and try to enforce the last night and I think certainly that has the word I think that certainly had nothing to do with the outcome. Whether we responded in ahead of time or not had nothing to do with the fact that there was a shooting where three people got shot, I think it's not really the main issue I personally don't feel strongly that any message from the mayor or from public health would have any relevance to what happened last night or it's an invitation for in chief. Well anytime if someone is intent on retaliation for gun violence there is going to be opportunities There's gonna be opportunities for the retaliation and you know I think if people. To gather and memorialize their friend or their family member, that's the right to do and if it's it's not up to me to tell them not to do that because there could be retaliation. We certainly didn't have any indication that they would be retaliation or that there would be a risk to these people that were gathered here last night and my suspicion is that they didn't have that feeling either, but if someone is intent on engaging in sort of a retaliatory action, there's gonna be opportunity for it and I think people are gonna have to you. Recognize that that's targeted you could say there's not a threat to the public or the community. This is a targeted shooting. These aren't people that are looking to hurt. You know anyone they come across but at some point after they see just the scale of the shootings. Going to start saying there might be a threat to the general public as you. And how close the neighborhoods this is well, I think I've been very careful and I've never said that these things don't pull as a threat to the community. I think I've said, just the opposite. I think the fact that they are targeted and not random is helpful information to the community to know but when you have 63 plus rounds being fired from some from an assault rifle in a neighborhood like this, there's no doubt that creates a risk to the community and if you look at the larger window of incidents over the last month with the volume. Rounds that are being fired in the community clearly that creates a risk to the public and so that's why it's such a concern for us. lastly do you have a suspect named or any sort of progress made in the shooting death of. I continues to be an open investigation of violent crime unit is still working on it, but we don't have any updates for you on that at this point. Do you feel you feel that the people who would engage in? Last night or more emboldened because of the the anti-police. Other side I would just be speculating. I mean I don't. I don't think so I mean you know we've seen gun violence. I've been flowing in Madison over the years and it has around the country as well. and I don't that's not something where I connected the dots on that, but obviously until we we're gonna make a arrest and ask those people. We wanna know that for sure since you're here can you talk it all about the Al Bernstein case? whether I don't have any update for you today, other than it remains open. We're working that case Fbi is involved. We continue to have people dedicate time and resources to it and as soon as there's more of an update for me to provide I'll do so I think the Freeman. Talk a little bit about the officers the currents they showed last night in response to the event. Thank you, Joel and thank you Chief thank you all for being here. Thank you so much. Oh, I'm sorry at least they are not on right so just as a personal note, I grew up near this Park. I spent my childhood sledding here playing here and what happened here last night's unacceptable and the police Department has the chief said, is doing everything we can to try to try to deal with these respond to this and this is obviously not the first one. we've responded to this summer. I wanna. This sentiments of the courage and the professionalism of our officers nearly 50 police officers were involved in this call last night officers stayed late left their primary assignments. Everybody came here to try to get this scene, safe and secure and deal with the aftermath and those officers are doing it night after night knowing that when they go in their lives are in danger knowing that there's a lot of hostility being presented to them and yet they're still they're still doing what they need to do when they need to do it and I'm just I'm I'm very appreciative. Only of my Midtown officers, but the officers again throughout the entire city who responded last night and and put it all on the line to try to get this gun battle under control So Thank you so we know the response time of the initial shot fired and the. it was very quick and I don't know if you have that, but officers were were nearby and responded very quickly. so I think it was purchased virtually instant. I mean they were so close they they heard the shots before the 911 call. Thank you. Do anything else We also have from the district here. Martin. Hello everybody. Thank you for letting me speak today and thank you for all for inviting me. I know last night was really scary I found out about it later we were in our Council meeting at the time and I was finding out things by a neighbor in our neighborhood Facebook group and I think that there quick response when they heard things to call into the police when they heard gunshots, particularly the residents of this block back here. I also saw the video of of like somebody that was filming live while they were here and. having it start off just kind of being a celebration and then turning into chaos as you hear shots and people and see people running it looks absolutely terrifying and I can't believe I can't imagine what the folks who are here and had to escape that or feel. Right now and I my sympathy goes out to them and you know my consideration and care is also towards the neighbors who saw all of this go down as well as called to help the police get here. The police is rapid response and sending so many officers to get the situation under control. I think it was a really great combination of community and our community leaders in the police Department getting things squared away and making. That people are safe you've been on the Council when they've rejected any further to athletes to the Department and I think there's a couple of weeks ago we wanted to shut down funding for some. weapons your own favor of those things we haven't voted on the non-lethal things that I don't think they're going to be up until September. It's something I that's something that I'm I'm looking at. I'm looking at both sides. I you know There're. There are a lot of great arguments. I don't wanna take away tools from the. But I also want to make sure that the tools that are available are as safe as possible. This should have more. We're in a tough budget year and more funding is not going to happen. Unfortunately, we're gonna have to everybody's going to have to make cuts unfortunately and that's just you know the situation that we're in unfortunately. Is that something that you might consider? again, that's something that I want to look at in terms of you know research. I know that yes, it is a good idea but at the same time there are negatives with it in terms of I don't believe that we've got created the policy for retention of the records as they would be public records and how they could be searched so it's a process that we need to go through to figure out how if we use them how it can be used. Best and safest manner Are you aware prior to what happened here that there was going to be a non-event involving potentially dozens and dozens of people in your district at this public-art, I did not know that it wasn't gonna be happening. You only how did you become aware of but again you mentioned the Council meeting. you're watching it. yeah I I was watching like Facebook feeds like of our neighborhood group and neighbors talking about what they saw. and this was prior. Right No so nothing prior to the I'd heard that there was a group but that. it just that there was a group of people and then should people be gathering your district in that number if they are not protesting if they're not using First Amendment rights to express an opinion that they're doing something I'll be at very genuine in terms of mourning, but should they be gathering in your district at a Park here in that size? I think that we need to be following the directions from Dane County Public Health, but at the same. morning is is really important and the people who are here last night we're celebrating a life of someone that they cared about and and needed to grieve and as well as celebrate the person that they lost and I recognize that need and so I don't feel comfortable passing the judgment on people wanting to come celebrate the tragic loss of their loved one if you heard. Constituents about the support for police. I've actually heard both sides I've had constituents message me on both sides of the opinion. Do you think that will change my mind at all? I'm not sure I guess we'll see as things proceed but you know I welcome all the feedback and and definitely take it into consideration when I make my votes. where do you stand the holder on this push to have some level of defunding the police? I think that it is important to make sure that. police aren't the only option as we saw last night, this was an example of a situation where we needed police and we needed officers there are times where other professionals maybe better suited to certain types of calls. I am working with the County to put forth a Of mental health first responder program in which folks that maybe have to call in a check person or Check Check the welfare of a person or someone is having a mental health crisis sending perhaps a paramedic and a mental health crisis professional would be better a better use of money as well as taking some of the the the calls off of the police Department's back so. We can have them focus on the things that they're very much needed on. If you wanna say to people who live in these these neighborhoods today are uneasy? about what might happen next? I think what I saw last night in terms of Facebook conversations and and just social media conversations generally was a lot of concern for the neighbors and for the people who are who are fleeing. I had heard secondhand of a neighbor who let some of the folks who are running come to her House and be like kind of shelter with them until things were safe until they knew that they could go out and things would be. For them sorry and I think that that kind of care is what a community should be and we need to hold on to that right now in in face of a huge tragedy and something extremely scary for everybody that was involved we need to look out for each other and I'm really glad that we had neighbors that we're thinking about that last night and continue to think about that. And then lastly there's. I don't know this neighborhood or what. Have you ever seen something like this happen in your? I think the closest. to this there was there was a situation that Hoyt Park years back but this is generally a you know this is a safe place. This is the Park where people come to play as captain, Friedman said. You come here sledding. I was here sledding last winter and go sliding quite a bit as well as using this facility for celebrations and for picnics and things like that But the the threat of violence is all over the place and we can't think of it as something that is relegated to one or two areas of town so we we just have to keep that in mind within an area that had a neighbor and now it doesn't because. Still have the same neighborhood. Here. correct. Yup. Thanks, Oh, I want to add a couple of things that I don't think I've been touched upon in reading the reports, which I have done this morning and in talking to some of our leaders from our violent crime unit to sign to set the stage here the Chiefs done that somewhat, but you have a disc jockey playing music up in this upper level of this shelter. So this is a two -part shelter, the upper level and the lower level so the disc jockey was up there. It's at this point, it's preliminary, but our violent crime unit believes that the shooters approached from the other side of this pavilion and we're shooting To gathering that was taking place and some of our officers were responding some of the muzzle flashes they were seen those were coming from this building, and we believe that there were some here who are returning fire to those who are shooting at them. in addition, the chief has mentioned an AK 40 - seven was likely here because we found rounds from AK 40 - seven. I'd like to call the captain up again to give you a sense of of the AK 40 -. In our officers carry. Yeah. so you know our officers carry Patrol Rifles. We have for some time and we carry them because we need to and the AK 40 - seven is a large round. It's a more powerful round, it will defeat the body armor that all of our officers wear and so we try to equip ourselves in a manner that's going to best protect the community and protect our officers and this is unfortunately, it's a perfect example of why you know we have to be very mindful of the gear We have access to because it's going to greatly improve our ability to resolve these situations with a minimal of harm and and a and a great positive or positive outcome for us for safety for everybody. So thank you because of the caliber. how shocking that they weren't fatalities. Because of the number of rounds fired and the number of people here it's it's it's I'm I'm very happy but very surprised that there weren't more victims. Any other questions and again, I'll get the names of the two arrested parties out to the media this afternoon also list the ages and the gender of those who've been injured. as the chief said three gunshot victims and then we have two other people who had injuries that were not related to be shot but in reading some of the reports we had people from this gathering the celebration running off into these fields. Officers found them hiding in trees grown men crying asking for rides home wanted to get back to their children. So this was a very traumatic. very fluid. situation. I mean we're standing here in the daylight but if you get out into these areas the Woods near here it's it's it's a spot where a lot of our officers had to fan out make sure there were no other victims. again we thank Middleton fire They brought their drone and put it up so that we could better inspect the ground here to make sure that there were no additional victims. so there's a lot of things. Quickly, I know there's a lot of conversation here about the public health crisis. We're in with the Corona virus, There are a lot of gatherings that take place where police have to use their discretion so that we don't incite something by intervening and so it's a balancing act as the chief has said. and so we think the Corona virus is very serious Our officers are dealing with it every day but again as a law enforcement agency, a lot of discretion has to be used and you have to take it on a case-by-case basis and that's what happened. Unfortunately, our officers were monitoring this situation and it seems peaceful and people were celebrating the life of this person who was lost and someone decided or a group of people who decided to take advantage of that situation. so any other questions for the media. you did mention there was young children on the. How many kids here? We're I don't know if we have a number on that, but I do know from reading reports that there were you can imagine if you were in the pavilion celebrating in your children cuz I've been here for various functions may have been outside here playing and all of a sudden in this chaos you're trying to find your child or you're trying to find your cousin so there was any of those scenes we've seen from Las Vegas where we've had a Mass shootings and fortunately, this was not one but we have the same level of chaos of people running from this building trying to find. Trying to find loved ones and so I think it really is a moment in time for Madison to take a look at what happened here. Take a look at the number of shots that are being fired and decide is this a time that we need to come together drop whatever differences we have whether you like or don't like the police, I think it's a time where we have to come together and do what we can to save people's lives cuz if we don't get on top of this, we're gonna be having more news conferences and sadly I think we're gonna be. More deceased people so this is critical, I think in a time for this community to really come to grips with what we're dealing with. If you guys need anything else for me, just let me know I'll get those names out again. Just so you know when I put the names of our violent crime and it doesn't have any information that either of these people. we arrested, we're involved in gun. Okay, that's saying they work, but we don't have any information so the one person is arrested in possession of fire and the other ones on I think was found his backyard of one of the neighbor's homes here and there's a he would.