Family of Alvin Cole meets with Wauwatosa mayor

WAUWATOSA, Wis. (CBS 58) -- Alvin Cole's family and the Wauwatosa mayor met for the very first time this week. The family's lawyer says it was long overdue.

It was one-on-one conversation with the mayor of Wauwatosa and the Alvin Cole family.

The mayor called it “breaking the ice.”

“That was my main job, hear the family and hear their story,” said Mayor Dennis McBride.  

McBride says going into the meeting, he made one thing clear.

“I didn’t want this to be legal arguments; we have an arena for that," he said.

The discussion comes just weeks after the Milwaukee district attorney decided not to charge Officer Joseph Mensah in the shooting death of Alvin Cole.

“They can fire him today if they wanted to," said Attorney Kimberley Motley.

The mayor says that’s not true.

“Legally, we cannot fire Officer Mensah, we have a Police and Fire Commission that are hearing complaints from the Cole and the Anderson family," McBride said.

“The city could be subject to an enormous legal liability of a couple million dollars," the mayor added.

Family attorney Kimberley Motley was in attendance at the meeting. She mentioned the arrest of members of the Cole family during recent protests.

“The mayor and the city attorney got to hear firsthand and see Tracy Cole’s black eyes. They showed pictures of her injuries to them. They acknowledged that they heard some of the audio of her assault," she said.

“I don't like anyone being injured but I can’t say that -- I can’t say it was an assault, the police officers caused this, I don’t have any of that information," said Mayor McBride.

Motley says either way, she's grateful for the open dialogue.

“To get anything done, you have to have a dialogue, and that’s just the bottom line, so I do think it was good to sit with the mayor and the city attorney." 

The mayor says they all agreed to keep the lines of communication open.