Victim is identified in deadly Madison police shooting as tensions rise

MADISON, Wis. — With protests and demands for accountability growing louder in Madison, officials have identified the man who was fatally shot by a police officer this week. Corey Ruiz, who was in his 30s and a member of the Madison community, was killed Wednesday, officials said during a news conference Thursday. He was shot after he pulled out a knife during a struggle with four officers, police said.​ The news conference became heated, as Madison Police Chief John Patterson was interrupted by two protesters for about 20 minutes. One took over the microphone to condemn police brutality and demand the officer responsible be jailed. Patterson described the case as “an open and active homicide investigation.” The state Justice Department’s Criminal Investigation Division is leading the investigation and will release the name of the officer who fired his weapon, he said. The mayor also called for answers about Ruiz’s shooting. “I want to be clear: It does not matter who you are or what your past is. You should not lose your life as a result of an encounter with law enforcement. That should not happen,” Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway said Thursday, promising that the shooting will be “rigorously investigated.” Public records show that Ruiz had 40 misdemeanor and felony convictions from 2009 to 2025. The crimes include robbery by force, strangulation, drug possession, vehicle theft and battery of a public safety worker, according to the records. It appears that Ruiz was most recently convicted of resisting law enforcement and drug paraphernalia possession, the records show. Jazzman Brown, a community organizer in Madison, said Ruiz was a father who was experiencing homelessness and mental health struggles. “Corey I’ve known for 20-plus years. He was a friend of my brother’s. We went to school together. He dated my best friend at one point. We’ve just known each other forever,” Brown said. She remembered Ruiz as a “loving” person and “the life of the party” who “filled the room with energy whenever he was in it.” “A father, a son, a friend, a loved one, and he’s gone. And his kids, his mom, his entire family, everyone that loved him and knew him, watched him be murdered in cold blood,” she added. Brown organized a vigil for Thursday night to honor his memory. “He didn’t deserve to be gunned down in front of the world, and he has people who love him. And he’s more than just a case number. ... We can’t just continue to let this problem go on. There has to be some kind of change,” Brown said. Efforts to reach Ruiz’s family members were not immediately successful Thursday. The shooting unfolded Wednesday afternoon when police officers were dispatched to Madison’s Marquette neighborhood after reports of someone stealing bicycles and checking vehicle doors, police said in their initial statement. ​Officers located Ruiz, but he biked off, traveling through backyards to get away, authorities said. Police found him shortly afterward at the intersection of South Baldwin and Williamson streets, police said. Ruiz either fell or was pulled off the bicycle, police said, and then a struggle with officers ensued in the intersection. During the struggle, Ruiz pulled out a fixed-blade knife and injured an officer, police said.​ Police said that a stun gun was used, but that it was ineffective. The officer who was injured with the knife then fired at Ruiz, police said. None of the four officers who were detaining the man wore body cameras. Videos of the shooting were captured by bystanders and went viral on social media. One of them, verified by NBC News, appears to show officers holding the man as someone yells, “Let go!” Multiple shouts of “He’s got a knife!” can also be heard.​ Someone then appears to yell, “Taser!” Roughly three seconds later, a male officer standing over Ruiz appears to fire three rounds, and Ruiz stops moving.​ Four officers were involved in or witnessed this shooting, according to police. Only one officer, who is considered a veteran officer, fired his weapon, police said. He has not yet been publicly identified. All of the officers involved will be placed on administrative leave pending an independent investigation by the Wisconsin Department of Criminal Investigation, as required under state law. Police said that lifesaving measures were performed at the scene and that Ruiz was pronounced dead later at the hospital. Aeiramique Glass, the interim independent monitor with the city whose sector monitors the police department, told NBC News the agency is conducting an investigation into the shooting but hasn’t gotten much from the department so far. She recalled rushing to the scene Wednesday and holding crying witnesses in her arms. “What we all seen was a man be shot in his head while he was laying on the floor after he was Tased, and after he was shot in the head three times,” Glass said about the video of the fatal shooting. “We have a situation where, regardless of all of the details surrounding it, his death could have been prevented,” Glass said. “We know there is a better way.” Ruiz’s death, which comes about six years after George Floyd’s murder ignited a wider examination of harsh police tactics against Black Americans, prompted protests in Madison. The shooting took place in an area with a history of police killings. It was a block and a half from where Tony Robinson was shot and killed by a Madison officer in 2015 and near the site where Paul Heenan was shot and killed by a police officer in Madison in 2012, the chief said. Hundreds gathered Thursday evening at the scene of the shooting, where heads were bowed for a moment of silence followed by chants of “Say his name! Corey Ruiz!” Later, the crowd raised their arms as the song “We Are the World” played in the background. Madison’s City Council President Sabrina Madison encouraged the public to press local officials and state legislators for justice for Ruiz. “If the protocol [is] to go that quickly to shoot this gentleman in the head three times, and that is an option, I don’t know how that is an option. ... I didn’t see anything that warranted it,” she said. “If we are told later that that was an option because of what preceded the shooting, then we need to be advocating at every level of government for these kinds of directives to change.” Shaquille Brewster and Kailani Koening reported from Madison, Marlene Lenthang from Los Angeles and Matt Lavietes from New York.