Wisconsin candidates for governor on Madison police shooting: Hong calls it 'an execution,' Tiffany says she's 'stoking division'

MADISON, Wis. (CBS 58) -- The shooting death of a man at the hands of Madison police officer has become the newest flashpoint in the race to be Wisconsin's next governor.

Demonstrations have continued in the capital city more than 24 hours after widely circulating bystander videos showed a Madison police officer shooting a resisting suspect three times from very close range after another officer attempted to tase him.

Friends have since identified the deceased as Corey Ruiz. Madison police officials have said Ruiz was armed with a fixed blade knife and cut the officer who later shot him. 

Bystander videos do not have a clear angle of what Ruiz was doing with his hands as he wrestled with officer in the moments before the shooting. Madison's common council has repeatedly denied requests by the police department to equip officers with body-worn cameras.

Varying views on whether the shooting was legally justified are reflected in the governor's race. In the Democratic primary, the frontrunner less than three weeks from election day is State Rep. Francesca Hong (D-Madison), who represents Madison's east side, where the shooting happened.

Hong has offered the harshest criticism of the shooting among the candidates, and she echoed her statement when addressing demonstrators at a vigil near the shooting scene Wednesday night.

"The bystander video is heartbreaking," Hong said. "This was an execution, and it never should have happened...We cannot allow officials to hide behind procedure, delay the truth, or treat this killing as routine."

The presumptive Republican nominee, Congressman Tom Tiffany, highlighted a video of Hong speaking at Wednesday's vigil. A spokeswoman told CBS 58 Tiffany has seen bystander videos of the shootings.

"Any loss of life is tragic, and my prayers are with everyone involved," Tiffany said. When I served in the state Legislature, we established the nation’s first statewide law requiring transparent, independent investigations of police-involved deaths. We should allow that process to establish the facts without politicians rushing to judgment or stoking division."

Tiffany referenced Wisconsin 2013 Act 348, which made the state the first in the U.S. to adopt a statewide mandate of outside, independent investigations with police kill someone.

In the Madison shooting, the Wisconsin Department of Justice's (DOJ) Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI) is leading the investigation of the officer's decision to use deadly force.

Tiffany was in the state Senate when the bill passed, but he was never added as a coauthor or cosponsor, and there's no record of how he specifically voted on the measure since it passed in a voice vote.

The two candidates closest to Hong, according to internal polls, are former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes and Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley.

"I am deeply disturbed and pained by the video footage I have seen of a man being killed in Madison," Barnes said in a statement. "The investigation is ongoing and it must be independent and transparent."

Crowley's statement did not indicate whether he'd seen the videos. A spokesman said late Thursday afternoon that Crowley had seen the footage. His statement alluded to the police-involved death of George Floyd and Kenosha police shooting of Jacob Blake.

"While details are still emerging and a full accounting of what happened is still needed," Crowley said. "These reports are painfully reminiscent of the tragedies we have witnessed in Kenosha, Minneapolis and far too many communities across our country."

State Sen. Kelda Roys (D-Madison) and former Department of Administration Secretary Joel Brennan are also still in the Democratic primary, although their campaigns have not picked up steam, based on Marquette Law School polling done throughout the year.

"We do not know all the facts but we do know that [Ruiz's] life mattered," Roys said. "And it is the responsibility of law enforcement to do everything possible to avoid violence. Everyone involved deserves the presumption of innocence and a thorough investigation."

"The Madison community deserves a full, transparent, and independent accounting of what happened," Brennan said in a social media post. "No family should have to wait for answers, and no community should have to wonder whether the truth will come out. The Wisconsin DOJ investigation must be allowed to do its work completely and without interference."