The latest: Jury deliberating in use of force trial of former officer Dominique Heaggan-Brown

The latest: Jury deliberating in use of force trial of former officer Dominique Heaggan-Brown
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The fate of a fired Milwaukee cop whose killing of a suspect led to days of unrest in Sherman Park alst summer is now in the hands of a jury.


Closing arguments wrapped up just before noon Tuesday.

On day 6 of the trial, the defense got its turn, calling just one expert witness in to testify. That witness was a use of force expert named Robert Willis.

Willis wrote the manual that Milwaukee Police use to train officers on the use of force.

He went through Heaggan-Brown's body camera video frame by frame, saying Heaggan-Brown was trained to assume there was a second weapon on Smith.

He says given the time he had to react, he believes the officer acted accordingly when firing both shots.

"The time between shots is interesting information. What I'm interested in, is how much time was there to actually make a decision? And in my estimation, much less than 1.69 seconds," said Robert Willis.

"From what he knew, he was presented with a deadly threat."

Indications are that there will be a 30 minute warning before the verdict is read.

"Officers have to make quick decisions in rapidly evolving situations," defense attorney Jonathan Smith told jurors. "That's what happened here, 12 seconds."

But the Milwaukee County District Attorney, who is arguing the case himself, countered.

"That second shot is excessive force. It's not self-defense," argued D.A. John Chisholm. "No reasonable person would have thought they were faced with death or imminent harm. It's just not reasonable."



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