Milwaukee County sergeant stabbed multiple times: report
MILWAUKEE - Court documents released Wednesday, March 6 reveal more about an attack on a Milwaukee County Jail correctional sergeant that happened Tuesday, March 5.
That correctional sergeant was stabbed at least four times and has a punctured lung.
The motive is unclear, but court filings say the male suspect, who FOX6 News is not identifying, as he has not yet been charged, was lying in wait early Tuesday morning and has a history of mental illness. He filed a prisoner civil rights lawsuit against Milwaukee County and others last month, including the sergeant.
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The lawsuit against the sergeant
The man filed it in federal court only three weeks ago.
He accused the sergeant, and others, of violating his rights while he was an inmate at the jail last year.
The man's handwritten complaint said jail staff should have observed him for suicidal and homicidal reasons. But he said that didn’t happen.
Milwaukee County Jail
He accused the sergeant of "walking away with food" while he was there.
The document also includes a court-ordered mental health evaluation of the man.
The psychologist diagnosed him with schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders, and warned, "should he discontinue use of his medications [...] he is vulnerable to experiencing a period of psychiatric decline and behavioral dysregulation."
The suspect is also accused of violence inside the jail. While he was there on a different case, prosecutors said the man punched a correctional officer in the face last May as they tried to move him between cells.
What happened the day of the attack
Milwaukee police officers and an evidence technician were at 9th and State Tuesday, marking, photographing and collecting evidence where a sheriff's sergeant was stabbed hours earlier.
"We are outraged by the attack on one of our own, who was just trying to come into work and serve the citizens of Milwaukee County," said Daniel Hughes, chief deputy at the sheriff’s office.
Court documents are providing more insight as to what happened Tuesday, and about the 41-year-old suspect.
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The stabbing was caught on video.
A Milwaukee police detective notes that multiple people walked past the man without incident, but around 5:30 a.m., the 51-year-old sergeant walked out of the parking garage and saw the former inmate. That’s when the sergeant said the man attacked him without saying a word.
The sergeant was stabbed in his shoulder, back, neck and chest.
He ran to the nearby criminal justice facility and got help.
Milwaukee County correctional sergeant stabbed, suspect arrested
A Milwaukee County Jail correctional sergeant was attacked and stabbed on a sidewalk near the jail early Tuesday, March 5.
Later that morning, police arrested the 41-year-old suspect at his apartment near 8th and Galena, less than a mile away.
The sergeant was taken to the hospital with life-threatening injuries, but is expected to be okay.
"We believe it was intentionally done, and I’ll leave it at that," Hughes said.