Family accuses police of shooting Wisconsin man in back

The family of a Black man who was injured during an arrest in Wisconsin last week says police shot him in the back even though he was unarmed and wasn't resisting.

Quadren Wilson's brother, Mane Morris, said police swarmed Wilson's car at a Madison intersection on Feb. 3 and shot him five times in the back as he sat behind the wheel and was raising his hands. Morris said Wilson, 38, told his mother what happened during a phone call from his hospital bed and she relayed it to him.

The Dane County Sheriff's Office, which is leading an investigation of the incident, has said Wilson suffered non-life-threatening injuries during the arrest. He was treated at a hospital and later transferred to jail. The sheriff's office has not described the nature of his injuries.

The office said Friday that 21 law enforcement officers from multiple agencies, including the state Justice Department and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, were involved in the arrest. Two state Justice Department agents fired their weapons during the incident. The office did not say why they fired or whether they hit anyone or anything. The agents were the only ones who fired their weapons.

The sheriff's office has not released the names of the agents who fired their guns.

It's also unclear why Wilson was arrested or why so many officers from different agencies were involved.

Wilson was granted extended supervision in February 2020 after serving a little more than a year in prison for second-degree reckless endangerment. Department of Corrections spokesman John Beard said the agency issued a warrant for his arrest the morning he was shot after receiving information from the Justice Department that he had "engaged in new criminal behavior" that violated the rules of his supervision.

Wilson was charged in August with disorderly conduct. It wasn't clear if that case drove the Feb. 3 warrant, which was issued five months after the charge was filed. Beard declined to elaborate on the warrant.

Sheriff's Capt. Jan Tezlaff declined to comment on the case.

Justice Department spokeswoman Gillian Drummond said the agency would have no comment until the probe is completed. The sheriff's office has not offered a timeline for the investigation.