In the early afternoon of Wednesday, July 22, 38-year-old Corey Ruiz was killed by Madison police officer Kiel Baitinger-Peterson at the intersection of Williamson and Baldwin St. in the city’s Marquette neighborhood. Baitinger-Peterson, along with three other officers, had confronted Ruiz over an alleged stolen bike and began violently subduing him in the middle of the street. After tasing him to the ground, the police department alleged that Ruiz pulled out a knife, at which point Baitinger-Peterson fatally shot Ruiz three times at point-black range. Several bystanders witnessed and video recorded the altercation, which then widely circulated on social media and sparked calls for justice for Ruiz and that the officers involved in his killing be held accountable.
An independent investigation into Ruiz’s killing has been opened by Aeiramique Glass of the Office of the Independent Monitor. She said in an August 4 press release, “Whenever a life is lost, and especially a life lost at the hands of those who took an oath to protect and serve, we must take a deep look at every measure that could have prevented it. Every life has value. But being Black, being unsheltered, and living with mental and behavioral health needs add additional vulnerability and additional risk, in this city, in this state, and in this country. My heart breaks for the family of Corey Ruiz. The killing of another son, father, brother, friend, regardless of any challenges he faced, he is loved and missed.”
In the days after Ruiz was killed, in addition to a rally and march to the capitol building, Madison activists and community members constructed a memorial site for Ruiz at the intersection where he was killed, which was decorated with flowers, candles, chalk and signs of solidarity. Protestors subsequently set up a barricaded encampment at the memorial site as they continued to demand both justice for Ruiz and for the City of Madison to protect its unhoused neighbors.
No Stranger to Violence
Flowers and flyers demanding justice placed by the community mark the corner of Williamson and Baldwin Street in Madison, Wisconsin where Corey Ruiz was killed (August 2026)…