When Milwaukee police got a call from a woman worried that Ashanti Hendricks might harm his girlfriend or their baby in the neonatal unit at Children's Hospital of Wisconsin, officers didn't anticipate a violent confrontation, according to a law enforcement source and dispatch records obtained by the Journal Sentinel.
What's more, the Milwaukee officers didn't show up at the hospital for more than 30 minutes after the woman's call and didn't request backup or notify the Milwaukee County sheriff's office or Wauwatosa police -- who also have jurisdiction in the area -- until after Hendricks, a wanted felon, pointed a gun at them and they shot him in the wrist.
The hospital was on lockdown for two hours Thursday afternoon, leaving parents and employees frantic.
The woman's call, which was neither an emergency nor simply a tip about a wanted felon's location, plunged police into uncharted territory. The Milwaukee Police Department does not have a policy for how to handle an armed -- but not actively shooting -- suspect at a hospital, something experts said needs to change.
Joel Plant, chief of staff for Milwaukee Police Chief Edward Flynn, said Friday the department is still in its early stages of a complex investigation involving several jurisdictions.
"Part of our investigation is reviewing our policies and practices, and as we've seen in the past, changes to our policy sometimes occur in the aftermath of a critical incident," Plant said.
During the phone call, which came in at 11:11 a.m. Thursday from a home on the northwest side, a woman told police she was concerned because Hendricks, 22, had a history of mistreating the mother and baby, according to the law enforcement source. The woman said Hendricks was involved with drugs and was known to carry a gun, the source said. She also told police he was headed to the seventh floor of the hospital to see the baby.
The call initially was classified as priority three, which means it did not require an urgent response. It was later upgraded to priority one, which involves a life-threatening incident, dispatch records show.
"Having a baby there just heightens the complexity of the whole thing," said David Couper, retired chief of the Madison Police Department. "The question is, how are you going to approach him?"
Perhaps plainclothes officers, instead of those in uniform, should have been sent in to assess the situation, Couper said. Perhaps officers should have taken a wait-and-see approach, following Hendricks to the parking lot after his visit instead of attempting to arrest him inside the hospital.
As long as the suspect isn't threatening anyone, officers and their supervisors should take some time to consider all options, Couper said.
"How can we expect the police department will handle this the next time? How are we going to operate? These are valid questions for citizens to ask about," Couper said. "This could have escalated into a very critical incident. He could have grabbed the baby as a hostage. He could have shot someone."
Tony Bouza, retired Minneapolis police chief, said such situations can get "hideously complex."
"You want to send somebody there to investigate, and you have to be concerned about the safety of the occupants," he said. "You have to practice prudence, caution and safety."
Once Hendricks threatened officers with his gun, they were justified in shooting him, Bouza said.
"Wanted people who go into children's hospitals with guns deserve to be shot," he said.
The shooting will be covered during the law enforcement review of the incident, which will be conducted by the three law enforcement agencies involved and the district attorney's office, Flynn said Thursday.
The officer who pulled the trigger is 27 and has nine years of law enforcement experience. The officer is on administrative duty, which is standard policy for officer-involved shootings.
Hendricks was shot at 11:57 a.m., 10 minutes after the initial two officers arrived in the neonatal unit, according to the dispatch report. The sheriff's office was notified at 12:01 p.m., and the Wauwatosa Police Department was notified at 12:08 p.m., after Hendricks was in custody. He was treated at Froedtert Hospital for the gunshot wound, then transferred to the county jail.
The sheriff's office has jurisdiction of the hospital complex, but the buildings are located in Wauwatosa and are so close to the Milwaukee border that they have a Milwaukee ZIP code. Milwaukee police routinely go there when teenagers are shot. What's more, any law enforcement agency has the authority to go into another jurisdiction to pick up suspects in its cases.
Although it is a professional courtesy for one agency to notify another in such situations, nothing in the Milwaukee Police Department's standard operating procedures requires officers to call the sheriff's office or Wauwatosa police when they enter Children's Hospital.
Another element of the law enforcement review will involve the Police Department's radio system, known as OpenSky.
One of the entries on the dispatch report notes: "transmission poor in hosp."
Because Milwaukee police often need to go to Children's Hospital to question people or otherwise investigate crimes, the department did install a radio amplifier on the first floor to assist with communication, said Michael Tobin, executive director of the Fire and Police Commission.
He said he had not been notified of any problems with communications.
The department also had not received any formal reports of radio transmission trouble, Plant said. Nonetheless, officials plan to look into the issue.
"As part of our review of the elements of the critical incident, one of them will be radio transmissions," he said.
The hospital also is conducting its own assessment, according to Chief Medical Officer Michael Gutzeit.
Thursday's incident "gives us the opportunity to learn and to look at ways we can do additional measures as necessary, do several debriefs, talk to law enforcement and if there are opportunities for improvements we will do so," he said.
Gutzeit said a member of the hospital's nursing and counseling staff visited every inpatient room, checking in and providing support to those who needed it.
"I have personally rounded through many of our units and can tell you that our staff are calm and at work, and focused on the best and safest care for our patients," Gutzeit said.
He added that the hospital offered to move any patient or family members who were on the seventh floor to rooms elsewhere in the hospital.
"No one chose to do so," Gutzeit said.
John Diedrich of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report.
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