| By Big Radio News Staff |
Beloit police are still not talking about circumstances tied to an officer firing a handgun at a Beloit man authorities say was behaving erratically as he rushed at police in a west-side neighborhood last week.
A criminal complaint released by the Rock County District Attorney’s Office in a jail court hearing last week says a female Beloit police officer shot her gun at Thomas O. Sykes, 34, as he continued to sprint toward her after she repeatedly told him to stop.
It was after officers showed up Wednesday afternoon at the 800 block of Oak Street to deal with a complaint Sykes was entering homes, assaulting young children, and acting erratically.
Sykes appeared in Rock County court on Friday on criminal charges of resisting officers and child abuse.
In an email to WCLO from Beloit Police Chief Andre Sayles late last week, Sayles declined to answer questions about the police shooting, even as the D.A.’s office had laid out details of the shooting in the criminal complaint and during Sykes’ hearing Friday.
As of Monday, Sayles and his police department have continued to decline comment on whether the Beloit officer is on leave following the shooting, and Sayles and police still haven’t said what steps the department is now taking in the aftermath of the shooting.
Sayles told WCLO in an emailed statement that he would personally release information when police wrap up an “ongoing investigation.” Meanwhile, he asked the media to refer questions to a city of Beloit spokesperson.
Beloit police department does not have a police official assigned to duties as a public information officer.
Last week’s incident is the third time in the last year police have shot a gun at someone considered a suspect during a crime in Beloit. Beloit police officers were involved in two of those shootings.
In last Wednesday’s incident, a single bullet the officer fired apparently missed Sykes. The other two police-involved shootings ended in the deaths of people officers shot.
One of those shootings killed 33-year-old Beloit resident Michael P. Ward as he reportedly lunged at another person while wielding a blade in each hand on Beloit’s east side April 28.
The Wisconsin Division of Criminal Investigation in an independent probe says Beloit police officer Nicholas S. Rodenbeck , the officer who shot Ward, remains on leave. Rock County’s D.A. continues a crosscheck of the state’s investigation.
The officer firing at Sykes last week marks the first of the three police-involved shootings that police have not independently verified as having occurred.
Sayles and Beloit police have not explained why they have declined to confirm the incident happened.
The D.A.’s criminal complaint indicates the officer fired a single shot at Sykes, but the bullet missed Sykes and did not injure him.
Sayles and police have not verified the D.A.’s accounts – including a D.A.’s official describing the officer’s gunfire in court as a “warning shot.”
It’s not clear whether the bullet struck any object after it was fired, although authorities continue to say nobody was injured in the incident.
Beloit police have skirted talking about the shooting. Police have acknowledged the incident involved gunfire, but the department has repeatedly declined to confirm who shot a gun.
The D.A.’s complaint says the officer shot at Sykes as he was sprinting at her out of a side yard. The complaint says the officer was backpedaling away from Sykes on a sloping piece of ground, and she repeatedly told Sykes to stop advancing toward her.
The complaint says the officer fired a shot and then shouted aloud she’d done so. As she was backpedaling, she apparently slipped and nearly fell on grass on an embankment.
Witnesses tell WCLO that neighbors who saw the incident unfold watched Sykes go down after the officer shot her gun. They say Sykes then got up and appeared OK.
Sykes was later loaded in an ambulance and transported for possible injuries. Police said doctors cleared Sykes medically, and police booked him into jail later on Wednesday.
Court documents say Sykes had entered an acquaintance’s home, pushed a child to the floor, and then went to another home on Oak Street and tried to grab hold of a person he didn’t know.
D.A.’s officials indicate Sykes resisted officers during his arrest, which rolled out after the officer shot at him.
According to a Beloit Police Department internal policy obtained by WCLO, police are required to report all “major police incidents” to a superior officer in charge immediately after the incident occurs.
According to the policy, “major incidents” include police use of force and police discharging a gun while on duty or off duty. Police are required to report all such incidents.
The policy also says police should release the details of such incidents to news media “as soon as is practicable.”
Under another department policy obtained by WCLO, Beloit police have an option to call in outside agencies to investigate police-involved shootings. However, that policy only recommends independent investigation in police-involved shootings that result in death of another person.