As officials review widely circulated bystander videos of the fatal police shooting of a homeless man in Madison, Wisconsin, one key perspective won’t be emerging: footage from the officers’ body-worn cameras.
Unlike nearly every other similarly sized city, Madison doesn’t require its police to wear them.
The absence of that footage has left residents in the dark about key moments leading up to the shooting, when police say Corey Ruiz pulled a knife during a struggle with four officers, injuring one of them. That officer then fired the shots, according to police. All four officers have been placed on administrative leave pending a state investigation.
In the meantime, the deadly encounter has reignited a contentious debate about body cameras, one that has long vexed local officials and pitted some of the city’s progressive groups against each other.
This past November, the Madison Common Council rejected a proposal to redirect funding from a police oversight group to a body-camera program. A new proposal to allocate $414,800 for a three-year roll out of the program is expected to be approved by the legislative body.
Police Chief John Patterson has described the proposal as “modest,” adding that the cameras had become “essential tools for the modern police officer.”
Law enforcement experts tend to agree and some expressed surprise that the city’s nearly 500 officers weren’t already using the cameras.
“There are very, very few agencies of that size that do not have a body-worn camera program,” said Michael D. White, a criminal justice professor at Arizona State University who led training on camera adoption for the U.S. Department of Justice.
“Madison has a long-standing tradition of being an innovative, progressive police department, so it’s startling,” he added.
As far back as 2016, roughly 80% of police departments with 500 or more sworn officers had acquired body-cameras — a figure that White said was now approaching 100%.
Over the last decade, Madison officials have repeatedly debated adopting the cameras. Committees have borne subcommittees, which have produced feasibility studies, amendments and hours of debate.
Local officials primarily blame budget concerns, along with political inertia, for the ongoing stalemate. Another common source of opposition, identified in a 2021 feasibility study, came from community groups worried the cameras would be used to surveil and criminalize marginalized groups.
“I cannot approve something that doesn’t have a policy and procedure behind it that is potentially going to hinder the community more than help the community,” said Veronica Figueroa, then a member of the body-worn camera subcommittee.
As camera adoption has become more widespread in recent years, those concerns have largely faded away, according to Common Council President Sabrina Madison.
But she said local officials have largely been preoccupied by another issue: finding shelter for a homeless population that has grown since the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It was like: if we’re going to figure out anything, we’re going to figure out how to fund shelter operations,” Madison told The Associated Press on Thursday. “So the last couple years, that’s where the focus has been.”
The city did briefly conduct a body camera pilot program in the summer of 2024. A subsequent report found the cameras had little impact on officers’ behavior or the community’s feeling toward police.
Dr. Broderick Turner, an independent researcher who analyzed the program and authored the report, noted the length of the pilot — only 90 days — meant there was little time for anyone to notice a meaningful difference. And he described demographic differences in the city's response.
“Black communities tend to want body cameras, but Madison is majority white,” Turner said. “The groups opposed were less impacted by crime and less impacted by policing.”
For some in the city, Wednesday’s shooting has surfaced memories of Tony Robinson, an unarmed 19-year-old who was fatally shot by Madison police in 2015.
His death ultimately led to the creation of the Office of the Independent Police Monitor.
This past winter, Madison lawmakers shot down a budget proposal that would have paid for a body camera program by cutting funds to the monitor.
Katey Nelson, a member of the police civilian oversight board, said the amendment had presented residents with a “false choice.”
“There are cuts that can be made with the Madison Police Department or the County Sheriff’s department, but they’re trying to pit similar agendas against each other,” she said.
“Nobody can agree on anything,” Nelson added. “Now we’re here, looking at another police shooting where we don’t have what we need to make sure the officers are held accountable.”
People gather near a memorial at the site where a man was shot and killed on Wednesday by Madison police, Thursday, July 23, 2026, in Madison, Wis. (AP Photo/Kayla Wolf)
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The police shooting death of a homeless man who wounded an officer with a knife while resisting arrest has roiled Wisconsin's capital city, with protesters and community groups demanding accountability and an end to racial injustice.
Corey Durell Ruiz, 38, was shot and killed on a city street Wednesday, the moments of his death captured in bystander videos that were later posted online. The race of the officer who fired his gun has not been released by police. Ruiz is identified as Black or Latino in Wisconsin court records.
“It does not matter who you are or what your past is, you should not lose your life as a result of an encounter with law enforcement,” Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway said during a news conference Thursday afternoon.
Wisconsin court records show Ruiz had been in and out of jail over the past decade for mostly misdemeanor offenses including disorderly conduct, drug possession, auto theft, battery and invasion of privacy. He was also convicted of felonies including possession of cocaine and marijuana, robbery, strangulation, resisting an officer and causing bodily harm.
“He’s a human being. He had a family. He has parents who loved him who brought him home, who cared for him,” Common Council President Sabrina Madison said, adding that she’s struggling to understand what she’s seen in videos of the shooting that have circulated on social media.
“My first thought is, when the officer’s walking away, why isn’t he walking away in cuffs,” Madison said. “I’m angry, there’s no way around it.”
Ruiz's family has retained Ben Crump, an attorney who has represented the families of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery, who were all shot and killed by the police. Crump said the case must be examined for excessive force.
Frustrated residents marched, and a memorial of flowers and signs grew near the place where Ruiz died. It was just blocks from where two other police killings happened in 2015 and 2012.
A group of about 20 protesters burst into Thursday's news conference, taking the microphone from police Chief John Patterson and arguing with some attendees who said they wanted to hear more about the investigation.
One protester held a sign saying “Corrupt cops deserve to die too!!!”
Moments earlier, the mayor said the shooting would be “rigorously investigated.”
Once the protesters quieted down, the chief resumed his presentation, promising his department's full cooperation with the state investigation.
None of the four officers who were detaining Ruiz wore body cameras, but passersby recorded the confrontation on video, and accused the officers of overreacting.
“I thought, ‘Holy cow — what could have warranted that?’ It looked to me like they had him under control,” David Ortiz-Whittingham, who saw officers swarming and heard the gunshots, said Thursday. “Even now, knowing about the knife, did he have to die for it? Could this have been de-escalated?”
The police chief released few details Thursday, saying a Wisconsin Division of Criminal Investigation probe of the officer-involved shooting must run its course.
Earlier Thursday, Madison's independent police monitor, Aeiramique Glass, said police had not yet shared evidence or the officer's identity with her office, which will review the case and can recommend to the district attorney that charges be filed if warranted. She said the department and city are “obstructing what the community and the public” want.
“Let me do my job,” she said.
Patterson said the police were committed to cooperating with Glass.
Patterson has urged caution in reading too much from the cellphone videos. He said none show the perspective of the officers, and additional video that hasn't been released is being reviewed.
The officer who fired his weapon is an 11-year veteran of the force, the chief said. He and the three other responding officers will be placed on administrative leave pending the investigation by the Wisconsin Division of Criminal Investigation, as required under state law.
Patterson said police were responding to calls that someone was attempting to enter parked vehicles, and the suspect fled on a bike before the officers surrounded him. One deployed a taser, but Patterson said the effort failed to control the man.
In the videos circulating online, the man can be seen standing before he's brought to his knees as the officers struggle to force him into a prone position. Then he falls quickly to the pavement after what sounds like three gunshots, and seems motionless as the officers handcuff him behind his back. Arriving officers then escort one of the officers a short distance away.
Patterson said he did not know the extent of the knife injuries sustained by the officer.
“This situation was clearly dangerous," Patterson said before adding he was saddened by the loss of life.
The shooting happened in the middle of an intersection in the popular Marquette neighborhood, less than 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) from the state Capitol. Bystander videos show numerous cars at the scene, with people watching as it unfolds.
“I saw everything! I saw everything! You did not need to kill him! ... We watched it all!” a woman yells in the video recorded by Ortiz-Whittingham. Three loud shots can be heard among the sirens, followed by screams.
Residents who dealt with two other police killings expressed frustration Thursday.
In 2015, a white police officer shot and killed Tony Robinson, who was biracial, on the same street. Large protests followed, but the district attorney filed no charges, determining the officer was justified. In 2012, Paul Heenan, a white musician, was fatally shot after he had been drinking and mistakenly entered his neighbor's house. That officer was exonerated as well.
The chief acknowledged that the neighborhood “has experienced a lot of trauma” and urged people to support one another.
“I want transparency. I want accountability,” Patterson said.
Black advocacy groups, protesters and politicians are speaking out against the shooting, which has also focused attention on the Madison Police Department’s lack of body-worn cameras. The force of around 500 is among the largest in the Midwest that doesn’t use the devices.
Madison said Thursday that she expects a police request for $400,000 to be approved, enabling the cameras to be phased in over the next three years. Others lamented that cameras weren't already being used.
The mayor said her budget, which has not yet been released, will include funding for body-worn cameras. She said the city needs to put together a policy for their use before the budget takes effect in January.
The shooting has quickly infused itself into the race to succeed Evers as governor, with voting already underway in the Aug. 11 primary.
Democratic socialist candidate Francesca Hong called the shooting “state sanctioned violence” and Democrat Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley said the reports are "painfully reminiscent of the tragedies we have witnessed in Kenosha, Minneapolis, and far too many communities.”
Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany called on his rivals to let the state investigation “establish the facts without politicians rushing to judgment.”
This story has been corrected to show it is the Wisconsin Division of Criminal Investigation, not the Department of Criminal Investigation.
Associated Press writers Ed White in Detroit and Jake Offenhartz in New York contributed to this report.
Residents react during a press conference regarding the incident where a man was shot and killed on Wednesday by Madison police, Thursday, July 23, 2026, at the police station in Madison, Wis. (AP Photo/Kayla Wolf)
Family members react as they gather at a memorial Thursday, July 23, 2026, in Madison, Wis., where a Madison police officer shot and killed Corey Durell Ruiz on Wednesday. (AP Photo/Kayla Wolf)
People mourn near a memorial at the site where a man was shot and killed on Wednesday by Madison police, Thursday, July 23, 2026, in Madison, Wis. (AP Photo/Kayla Wolf)
A protester holds a photo of Corey Durell Ruiz as they march Thursday, July 23, 2026, in Madison, Wis., after he was shot and killed by a Madison police officer on Wednesday. (AP Photo/Kayla Wolf)
Protesters march after a Madison police officer shot and killed a man Wednesday, July 22, 2026, in Madison, Wis. (AP Photo/Kayla Wolf)
Attendees gesture during a candlelight vigil where a Madison police officer shot and killed a man Wednesday, July 22, 2026, in Madison, Wis. (AP Photo/Kayla Wolf)
Mourners gather around a memorial at the site where a man was shot and killed on Wednesday by Madison police, Thursday, July 23, 2026, in Madison, Wis. (AP Photo/Scott Bauer)
Attendees light candles at a candlelight vigil where a Madison police officer shot and killed a man Wednesday, July 22, 2026, in Madison, Wis. (AP Photo/Kayla Wolf)
Attendees gesture during a candlelight vigil where a Madison police officer shot and killed a man Wednesday, July 22, 2026, in Madison, Wis. (AP Photo/Kayla Wolf)
Gubernatorial candidate Francesca Hong speaks alongside protesters near where a Madison police officer shot and killed a man Wednesday, July 22, 2026, in Madison, Wis. (AP Photo/Kayla Wolf)
Attendees gather at a candlelight vigil where a Madison police officer shot and killed a man Wednesday, July 22, 2026, in Madison, Wis. (AP Photo/Kayla Wolf)
Protesters march after a Madison police officer shot and killed a man Wednesday, July 22, 2026, in Madison, Wis. (AP Photo/Kayla Wolf)
