Witness shares story of "Miltown Throwdown" crash

Social media is a buzz after a Saturday night accident involving a motorcycle and a squad car near 6th and McKinley.

Police tell us that a biker hit the squad after it pulled in front of a group of riders who were in town for an event called the Miltown Throwdown.  The bikers disagree with the police account of the crash.   

Amateur video at one point shows the squad car weaving in traffic but it does not clearly show the point of impact.

Meanwhile some local residents, especially in Bayview have complained about the bikers ignoring traffic rules and even in some cases, riding up on sidewalks.

It started as more than 500 bikers, coming together to take a ride from West Allis to Milwaukee but ended with two being thrown off their motorcycles. 

\"Here comes this police officer coming down Milwaukee Street, doing whatever to try and block us from passing him. You see him in the video swerving back and forth,\" said Billy Charles, who was riding with the \"Throwdown.\"

Charles says he saw it all happen and says his friend was trying to get around the cop when he was hit. 

\"The video plainly, clearly shows us riding behind him and then when you see us trying to pass him you see him swing over to hit you. The video; it doesn't lie,\" said Charles. 

We tried to contact Milwaukee Police for answers to Charles' allegations, but got no response, beyond their claim that the rider hit the officer.  

MPD  didn't tell us why the officer wasn't allowing drivers to pass him and Charles says this has never happened during a  group ride before. 

\"We've never seen a cop do this before. Every, what that police officer did, in all my years of riding. You pull us over, you tell us what you want us to do that's it you go on,\" he said. 

He says they provide their own security, blocking roads so they can quickly make it through intersections; something that bothered residents this year but apparently not in years past. 

\"Again it happens once a year. We don't see what's the big deal. We don't do it but once a year, we don't do it every Saturday, Sunday. It's just one big ride. That's it. If it was that big of a problem we would have been stopped in West Allis,\" said Charles. 

 
He says they try to work with police and just minutes before, they complied with a different officer's request to break up their large crowd. 

\"We know if we make a mistake when were doing something on our motorcycle than shame on us but when you deliberately get knocked off your bike...\" said Charles. 

Charles tells us in it's seven years the throwdown hasn't caused problems but this year cops were called after risky driving like you see here in Bayview. on sidewalks and running red lights on the east side. 

It's something Charles says isn't representative of the group.  

\"If they get pulled over and get a ticket than that's on them, doing burn outs on the sidewalks and streets that's on them,\" he said. 

We  reached out to Bayview residents, many of whom were afraid to speak on camera, but Charles says his group is not a gang and this event is is normally much more  like a parade, and is hoping things go back to that in the future. 

Police tell us the driver of the motorcycle walked away unharmed but was cited, and his passenger was treated for minor injuries at a local hospital.