The federal courthouse in Milwaukee.

A federal civil trial over the killing of 17-year-old Alvin Cole by then-Wauwatosa police officer Joseph Mensah entered its second day Tuesday, with testimony from the medical examiner, police investigators and Mensah himself. Mensah killed Cole on Feb. 2 2020 following a foot pursuit at Mayfair Mall, during which Mensah said Cole pointed a gun at him. 

Dr. Weislaw Tlomak, chief medical examiner in Milwaukee County, performed the autopsy of Cole’s body the morning after he was killed. Using diagrams and a manikin , she described in detail the gunshot wounds Cole sustained after running from police in the Mayfair Mall parking lot. 

One of the most discussed wounds on Cole’s body was a gunshot wound to his forearm. Tlomak explained that it came from a shot at close range. 

Attorneys representing the Cole family argued that Cole shot himself in the arm as he ran, causing him to fall to the ground. Cole’s other wounds were also discussed in detail, with autopsy photos shown to the jury for the first time. When the case first went to trial in March, ending in a hung jury, autopsy photos were not shown. 

As Tlomak testified, U.S. Marshals streamed in and out of the courtroom, their presence more noticeable than on Monday. At one point during testimony, four fully uniformed Wauwatosa officers sat on the far side of the courtroom in full view of the jury. One of them sat next to Mensah’s wife, herself a former Milwaukee police officer. At least one of the officers, Ralph Salyers, had been on the scene of Mensah’s second shooting in 2016 of Jay Anderson Jr., and was offered immunity by special prosecutors in 2021 when that shooting was re-examined under the state’s John Doe laws. The officers sat for hours listening to testimony. Cole was the third person killed by Mensah during his five years at Wauwatosa PD. 

Milwaukee police detective Lori Rom, who served as part of the Milwaukee Area Investigative Team in 2020, testified, “Everybody sees and hears stuff different.” Rom and her partner William Schroeder, with whom she helped investigate the Cole shooting, said they were unable to talk to Mensah or officer Evan Olson, who’d left the scene and had to be interviewed with their lawyers. 

Both detectives testified that officers involved in fatal incidents need to be separated in order to avoid contaminating or influencing statements. Rom and Schroeder testified that officers should know better than to talk to each other. Both detectives admitted that they were surprised to learn from plaintiff attorneys on Tuesday that Mensah and Olson had gone off in a squad car together, and that Olson may have even driven Mensah back to the police department. “I would be surprised,” said Rom. “That’s typically not what you’re supposed to do. They should know not to do that.” No officer or supervisor told the investigators that officers hadn’t been separated, an important detail both Rom and Schroeder said they expected their colleagues to share with them.

Rom and Schroeder both said that no officers reached out to them to say that their reports were inaccurate after reviewing them. Their interviews with officers were not recorded, a common practice of the Milwaukee Area Investigative Team. Schroeder testified that an attorney from the Cermele Law Office, who regularly represented police officers, refused to allow his clients to be recorded.

Attorneys attempted to read other officer interviews from the Cole shooting investigation, but were struck down by U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelmen, who agreed with defense attorneys that the reports were hearsay. One of those reports described a Wauwatosa officer, Maria Albiter, who was approached by Olson as she sat with Mensah, and told that he would sit with the officer instead.  

Plaintiff attorneys played sections of squad car video which captured Mensah and Olson going to a squad car together before deactivating the video and both of their lapel microphones. In another clip, Shamsi can be heard talking to Wauwatosa officer Dexter Schleis about the shooting, with plaintiff attorney’s posing that Schleis can be heard promising not to tell anyone that they talked at the end. When Schleis, who is still a Wauwatosa officer, later took the stand and heard the clip, he denied having said that. 

A major issue in the case is the contradicting statements between Shamsi, Olson, and Mensah. Whereas Shamsi was closest to Cole when he was shot and said the teen’s gun hadn’t moved at all, Olson and Mensah said that Cole raised the gun at each of them. Olson and Mensah were on opposite ends of the parking lot. Plaintiff attorneys argue that the gun couldn’t have been pointed at them both, while Mensah’s defense attorneys suggested in opening statements Monday that Cole pointed the gun at both officers. 

Mensah himself took the stand Tuesday afternoon. As in the last trial, he answered many questions asked by plaintiff attorneys with “I don’t remember” or “I don’t recall”. Mensah testified that after hearing the first gunshot as he chased Cole, he pulled out his own weapon. When Mensah saw a gun in Cole’s hand, he tensed his body and prepared to be shot, he said, describing it as a sort of “burning” sensation and fear. 

“It’s dark, it’s a stressful situation,” said Mensah. “Just because I remember one thing doesn’t mean I’ll remember another.” Yet the muzzle of Cole’s gun was something that Mensah testified that he won’t forget. “It’s not just me I’m protecting,” said Mensah. “It’s everyone else there as well.”

Mensah said that he fired until he felt the threat had been stopped, and that after the shooting he was very distraught and crying. Olson came to comfort him, and although Mensah said he couldn’t remember aspects of their time together, he told the jury that the two did not talk about the shooting at all. Mensah also couldn’t recall why his video and audio stopped once the two got into the car together. Mensah said he didn’t understand why Cole didn’t stop and drop the gun. “I didn’t want to get shot,” said Mensah. “I didn’t want to die.”

The day ended with testimony from Ricky Burems, a former Milwaukee police detective with 32 years experience, and Schleis. Burems spoke about his experience with Defense and Arrest Tactics (DAAT), a standardized use of force training police officers in most states including Wisconsin receive. 

DAAT should be interpreted as what a hypothetical reasonable officer with the same training would do, Burems testified, adding  that even when deadly force is used, the purpose is not to kill someone but to stop an imminent threat. Dialogue, not deadly force, is emphasized in DAAT training, Burems testified. If an officer fires, then after each shot is taken an officer needs to re-evaluate whether the threat still exists, he said. When firing, an officer must also consider what is beyond his target, such as civilians or other officers who may be struck. When questioned by defense attorneys, he said that although he’s trained many officers over his career, that he is not a certified DAAT instructor, and that there are circumstances where officers may rely on deadly force immediately. 

The day ended with Schleis, one of the officers who responded to Mayfair Mall in 2020, recounting how he arrived at the mall, responding to a call about a disorderly suspect who may have had a gun. Officers encountered a group of teens outside the mall, one of whom matched the description of the subject they were looking for. The group ran. Schelis was arresting one of the teens when he heard the first shot go off, followed by several more. Schleis, like other officers, testified that foot chases are remarkably unpredictable and dangerous. Asked about talking to other officers on scene, he denied telling Shamsi that he wouldn’t tell anyone that they’d talked, something plaintiff attorneys argued was captured on camera. 

By the end of the day, the four Wauwatosa officers who’d watched portions of the trial left and Wauwatosa PD Captain Luke Vetter arrived to watch testimony from the gallery, wearing a civilian suit with a badge on the breast pocket. Plaintiff attorneys rested their case Tuesday, with more witnesses expected to be called by the defense Wednesday before the case is handed over to the jury.