The mother of a Black man who was shot Thursday morning on Madison’s Far East Side said a state law enforcement officer shot her son at least five times in the back while he was unarmed.
Quadren L. Wilson, 38, underwent surgery Saturday because of the gunshot wounds, his mother, Stacy Morris, said in an interview Saturday. The Dane County Sheriff’s Office, which is investigating what it said was an officer-involved shooting, characterized the injuries as “non-life-threatening.” Morris, 53, said she received an update from the hospital that Wilson made it through the surgery.
Authorities still have not released the name of the man who was shot, nor who shot him. The Sheriff’s Office has described the incident as an “officer-involved shooting” in which “shots were fired” around 8:20 a.m. near the intersection of American Parkway and Eastpark Boulevard on Madison’s Far East Side.
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In a brief update Friday, the Sheriff’s Office said the man shot was 38 and wanted on a state Department of Corrections warrant. Wilson has an open disorderly conduct case and several other criminal convictions that he has served sentences for, but it’s unclear whether those are related to the warrant.
Madison police spokesperson Stephanie Fryer said Madison officers were assisting agents with the Wisconsin Department of Justice Division of Criminal Investigation with an investigation when the shooting happened and that no Madison officers fired their weapons and no officers were injured in the shooting.
Dane County Sgt. Jeremy White said Saturday the investigation is ongoing and the Sheriff’s Office had no further comment. The Department of Justice did not respond to a request for comment.
Wilson’s younger brother, Mane Morris, said in an interview Saturday he believes authorities aren’t providing more information on the shooting because a white officer shot his brother, who is Black. Morris said police officials — he didn’t remember the names of the officers because his family has talked with “so many of them” — told him that a white officer from the Division of Criminal Investigation shot his brother.
Morris said he believes the shooting of his brother was an example of racism, saying he didn’t think this would have happened to a white person.
“We feel like they tried to kill him,” Morris said of his brother. “We feel like they’re trying to cover up their tracks. And they’re not telling the community the truth of what happened because their officer was at fault.”
“Why can’t they tell the honest truth about what happened?” Wilson’s father, Nora Morris, 54, said. “That’s all I’m looking for is honesty. And it’s not happening.”
Stacy Morris said she was able to talk to her son for about five minutes at the hospital but then was told she needed to leave. Wilson told her he was at a stoplight when the truck in front of him started backing up into him, she said. Wilson tried to back up, but then another truck pulled up behind him and “smooshed him in the middle,” Morris said. Then undercover officers jumped out of the trucks, Morris said.
“They smashed his windows and said, ‘Put your (expletive) hands up in the air,’” Morris recalled her son telling her. She said he leaned forward over the steering wheel and put his hands up in the dashboard area.
“He was scared to make any type of move in the car. So his hands went straight to the dash,” she said. “And when he did that, he said, ‘Mom, they just got to firing on me.’ He told me he heard over 20 gunshots.”
A Wisconsin State Journal photo shows a silver sedan wedged between two SUVs at the scene of Thursday’s shooting.
A doctor told Morris that her son was shot several times in the back, she said. She asked how many “several” was, and the doctor directed her to police. Wilson told her he thought he had been shot at least five times, she said.
Mane Morris said part of why his family wanted to talk to the media is because they want to be able to be able to see Wilson.
Stacy Morris said Wilson told her that he was unarmed and didn’t know why law enforcement was after him.
“He didn’t do nothing wrong,” Mane Morris said. “Nothing.”
“But being Black. That’s what’s wrong,” Nora Morris added.
Mane Morris said authorities are holding Wilson on a probation violation. That’s why the hospital is saying his family can’t see him — because Wilson is technically in custody, Morris said.
Wilson was on extended supervision for second-degree recklessly endangering safety in 2017. He was sentenced and served two years in prison for the conviction. He has previous convictions for fleeing police, disorderly conduct, bail jumping, trespassing, intimidating a victim, battery, theft and resisting.
Stacey Morris said she doesn’t understand why police needed to corner Wilson and shoot him when he had a GPS ankle monitor. She said he had recently checked in with his probation officer.
“There’s no getting away. They know where he’s at at all times,” she said. “I don’t know why they did this.”
State Journal reporter Chris Rickert contributed to this report.