The inquiry follows a chaotic arrest attempt in which police said a wanted driver sped away with an officer clinging to his truck.
MILWAUKEE, Wis. — An outside police agency is investigating after a Milwaukee officer shot and killed a 35-year-old man during an attempted arrest Thursday, after authorities said the man drove off in a tow truck with the officer hanging onto the vehicle.
By Friday, investigators had identified the dead man as Jonathan Otto of Germantown, and officials were still piecing together how an attempted arrest for a parole violation turned into a fatal shooting on Milwaukee’s near south side. Police Chief Jeffrey Norman said the event began shortly after 10 a.m. when officers and a Department of Corrections agent located Otto in a flatbed truck with a passenger. What happened over the next several blocks now sits at the center of a review that will examine the officer’s actions, the driver’s response, available video and whether the shooting met Wisconsin law and department policy.
Norman said the officer, who was in full uniform, approached the truck and told Otto to get out. When Otto refused, the officer tried to pull him from the vehicle, according to police. Instead of stopping, police said, Otto started the truck and drove off at high speed while the officer remained attached to the driver’s side. The chase was brief in distance but dramatic enough to draw immediate public attention after witness video showed the officer clinging to the truck as it moved through an intersection. Norman said the officer issued multiple commands to stop and warned Otto that he would shoot if the truck kept moving. Police said Otto did not comply, and the officer fired, stopping the truck moments later.
Otto died after being shot. Police said the passenger inside the truck was not physically hurt by gunfire, though she was taken for medical care as a precaution. The officer was treated for minor injuries and survived. Authorities have identified him only as a 46-year-old officer with more than 21 years of service. They have not said how long he remained attached to the truck in seconds, how fast the vehicle was moving, how many rounds were fired or whether the officer had any safe chance to disengage before he shot. Those missing details are likely to shape how the public and prosecutors assess the split-second decisions made on the street. For now, police have described the event as a rapidly escalating threat that placed everyone in and around the truck in danger.
The case also carries a larger public safety context. Local reports said Otto was wanted on a parole violation and had prior cases involving fleeing police in stolen vehicles. Norman said the stop should have ended with the suspect in custody rather than in a running confrontation on city streets. He called the shooting a “totally preventable” incident and said the danger extended beyond the officer to the passenger and other people nearby. Those comments suggest the department will present the case as one driven by the driver’s decision to flee, though that will not settle the central legal question of whether the officer’s use of deadly force was justified under the exact circumstances. That answer will depend on physical evidence, recordings and the sequence investigators can verify.
Under the Milwaukee Area Investigative Team process, the West Allis Police Department is leading the inquiry instead of Milwaukee police. The officer has been placed on administrative duty while the case is reviewed. Investigators are expected to gather witness interviews, squad and surveillance video if available, radio traffic, forensic evidence from the truck and roadway, and medical findings from the officer and Otto. The Milwaukee County Medical Examiner publicly identified Otto on Friday morning, giving investigators one more confirmed piece of the timeline. The next formal steps typically include a case file for prosecutors and an internal review of tactics and policy, though authorities have not announced target dates for either. They also have not said when any footage might be released to the public.
The human fallout was already visible by Thursday afternoon. Otto’s family publicly challenged the shooting, saying he should not have died. Witnesses described a fast-moving truck, a desperate officer and a scene that looked more like a movie than a neighborhood arrest. Nearby residents watched as officers secured the area, searched around the truck and redirected traffic. The police union said vehicle encounters are among the most dangerous situations officers face because they can become deadly within seconds. That statement aligned with what bystanders said they saw: an officer trying to hold on long enough to survive, a driver who did not stop and a passenger caught in the middle. Even before the investigation is complete, the case has become another stark example of how quickly a routine enforcement action can collapse into irreversible violence.
As of Friday, the public record showed a fatal shooting, an injured officer, an unhurt passenger and many unanswered questions about the seconds before the shot was fired. The next key development will be what outside investigators release about the evidence and whether any video fills in the gaps left by the first police account.
Author note: Last updated March 13, 2026.