MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A Wisconsin judge has charged a police officer in the 2016 slaying of a Black man, years after prosecutors declined to file charges.
Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Glenn Yamahiro charged Joseph Mensah on Wednesday with homicide by negligent use of a weapon in the shooting death of Jay Anderson Jr. in Wauwatosa in 2016.
Prosecutors cleared Mensah, who is also Black, of any criminal wrongdoing soon after the shooting, but Anderson’s family asked Yamahiro to review the case through the state’s little-used John Doe process.
It allows a judge to question witnesses directly and to decide whether to file charges.
Anderson was one of three people whom Mensah fatally shot during five years as a Wauwatosa police officer.
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