Officer Christopher Manney, 38, of Milwaukee has been fired nearly six months after shooting 31-year-old Dontre Hamilton's death, according to CBS.
Hamilton's shooting has been compared to the Michael Brown shooting, an unarmed, black 18-year-old shot by an officer in Ferguson, Missouri, CBS reported.
Hamilton was sleeping in a downtown park when Manney responded to a call for a welfare check and began a pat down, according to CBS. Milwaukee Police Chief Edward Flynn said Hamilton resisted and the two exchanged punches and strikes before Hamilton hit Manney on the neck with Manney's baton, then fatally shot him.
Flynn said that while Manney correctly identified Hamilton as someone who was emotionally disturbed, he ignored his training and police policy and treated him as a criminal, CBS reported.
"You don't go hands-on and start frisking somebody only because they appear to be mentally ill," Flynn said during a news conference where he announced the firing, according to CBS.
Hamilton's family has said he was diagnosed with schizophrenia but was not violent and expressed doubt that he struck Manney, CBS reported. They called Wednesday for police to release photographs documenting the officer's injuries.
The Wisconsin Division of Criminal Investigation investigated Hamilton's death under a state law that requires an outside investigator to review all officer-involved deaths, according to CBS.
The Milwaukee County district attorney's office has asked an unnamed investigator to do a second review, and an attorney for Hamilton's family said he was told the FBI is looking into it as well, CBS reported.
Flynn said his decision was based on an internal affairs investigation and did not answer questions about whether Manney should face criminal charges, adding that he found "errors of judgment, but no malice" in Manney's handling of the confrontation, according to CBS.
