2016 Milwaukee riots

On August 13, 2016, a riot began in the Sherman Park neighborhood in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, sparked by the fatal police shooting of 23-year-old Sylville Smith. During the three-day turmoil, several people, including police officers, were injured and dozens of protesters arrested. A nightly curfew was set up for teenagers in the area.

Smith was running on foot and armed with a stolen handgun when he was shot. Smith and the officer who fired the fatal shots, Dominique Heaggan-Brown, were both African-American. Video from the officer's bodycam showed that Smith had turned with the gun in his hand toward the officer just before the officer shot him.

Heaggan-Brown was criminally charged with Smith's death and acquitted at trial. This was the first homicide charge against a Milwaukee police officer in over a decade. A civil lawsuit is currently pending.

In 2014, community protests followed the fatal shooting of Dontre Hamilton, a Black man, in Milwaukee. The officer who shot and killed Hamilton was fired from the police force for not following protocol, but he was not criminally charged. In December 2014, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that it would work with the Milwaukee Police Department on reforms. Milwaukee police previously attracted controversy for two incidents involving the deaths of black suspects while in police custody—one in 2010 and the other in 2011—as well as a scandal involving illegal strip searches and body cavity searches of 74 black people, for which a $5 million settlement was approved by the Milwaukee Common Council. Residents have criticized policing methods in predominantly black neighborhoods, which they say often involve a lack of respect towards suspects and use of force.

On June 29, 2016, police in riot gear had to respond to unrest in Sherman Park, near 39th and Burleigh, a block away from the August incident. Rioters smashed windows and threw rocks at police. A BP gas station had been a frequent flash-point for unrest during June and July 2016, with several incidents taking place there, including a murder. Later, it would be looted and set on fire during the August 13 riot.

The shooting of Sylville Smith occurred during a violent weekend in Milwaukee, with nine other shootings, five of them homicides, occurring within the preceding nine hours from August 12 to August 13. Two of the crime scenes were located a few blocks away from the police shooting.

Several reports and Milwaukee residents have connected the riots to a history of segregation and discrimination in Milwaukee.

Black residents, who make up about 40 percent of the city's population, have higher rates of unemployment, violent crime, incarceration, lack of education, and lower incomes than white residents. The poverty difference between black and white citizens is about one-and-a-half times the national average, and according to the Economic Policy Institute, Milwaukee has the nation's highest black unemployment rate.