March 29, 2024
A federal judge has ruled that a civil lawsuit over an officer-involved shooting that killed 17-year-old Alvin Cole in early 2020 may go to trial. On Tuesday, attorneys representing Cole’s family and former Wauwatosa officer Joseph Mensah — who fatally shot Cole following a foot pursuit — delivered oral arguments before U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman. Although Adelman’s decision was expected to take as long as six weeks, his ruling Friday came just three days after the hearing.
In February 2020, Wauwatosa officers were dispatched to Mayfair Mall for a disturbance between two groups of people, during which a handgun was brandished. When officers arrived, Cole and his friends were fleeing the mall, with Mensah being the last officer to arrive. As Cole ran, a handgun in his possession went off, causing a grazing wound on the teenager’s arm according to autopsy reports. Cole, falling to his hands and knees, was surrounded by several officers, including Mensah.
What happened next has been the subject of a murky and contentious debate since the day Cole was killed. “The officers provide conflicting testimony regarding what happened in the moments before the shooting,” Adelman wrote in his decision. Although Mensah claimed Cole pointed the gun in his direction before he fired his own weapon, Officer Evan Olsen — positioned in another area around Cole — claimed the teen also pointed the gun at him. Another officer, David Shamsi, who was closer to Cole than either Olsen or Mensah, said that he didn’t remember the gun moving at all. Adelman also noted that Mensah didn’t testify to Cole having pointed a gun at anyone besides himself.