Milwaukee police officer shot, man charged with reckless injury

MILWAUKEE - A South Milwaukee man is accused of shooting a Milwaukee police officer on the city's south side late Sunday night, May 5.

Prosecutors charged 26-year-old Mark Courtney with first-degree reckless injury and first-degree recklessly endangering safety. The shooting happened near Cesar Chavez and Scott around 11 p.m. that night.

According to a criminal complaint, three officers were monitoring a Cinco de Mayo celebration when they heard multiple gunshots. One of the officers, a 29-year-old man with more than a year of service, felt pain in his leg and realized he'd been shot. The officer was taken to a hospital for treatment and released.

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No officers returned fire, police said, and no one else was shot.

Another officer heard gunshots and then the "whistle" of a bullet past his head, the complaint states. The officers took cover and helped the wounded officer before one of them ran toward a restaurant, where the shots were fired from. Four bullet casings were found directly outside the restaurant's doorway, and there was a bullet strike to a window frame.

Officers searched the area for the shooter and any witnesses. The complaint states a witness described the shooter, later identified as Courtney, who was walking "at a fast pace from the shooting location." An officer approached Courtney and saw a handgun in his waistband, and Courntey told police he had a concealed carry permit and had just fired the weapon.

Surveillance video from the restaurant showed three people, including Courtney. The complaint states Courtney and another man went into the restaurant and were talking to a third person before the three walked out together. Courtney then went back inside, per the complaint, and video showed him appearing to shoot at the third person. The shots were fired in the direction toward where the officer was hit roughly a block away.

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A witness told police Courtney and the third person "started to have words" in the restaurant, and they started to go outside to fight, the complaint states. The witness said the third person claimed to have a gun, but they did not see it.

Once in custody, per the complaint, Courtney also described a "minor argument" in the restaurant about cutting in line. He said the person had a gun and, when he saw the person coming back, thought the person "had come back to kill him" – so he decided to defend himself. Prosecutors said the person at no point on video showed a gun.

Courtney said the person never shot back, the complaint states. He also apologized for shooting and wounding the officer, but maintained he acted in self-defense.