Milwaukee Police Commission to Release info on Darius Simmons Case: 75 Yr. Old White Man Murdered Black Teen - Police Detained Mother & Searched her House

From [HERE] New information in the Darius Simmons’ shooting case is expected to be released during Thursday’s meeting of Milwaukee’s Fire and Police Commission. Simmons’ was gunned down on May 31st — allegedly by his neighbor, 75-year-old John Spooner. He has pleaded not guilty to first degree intentional homicide in the case.

According to the criminal complaint, Simmons was retrieving the garbage from the curb when Spooner walked up to him and confronted him. Spooner, the alleged victim of multiple burglaries, accused the teen of being the culprit of at least one of the burglaries.

Spooner asked Simmons for his belongings back, including two shotguns. Simmons denied having anything to do with Spooners’ stolen property. Simmons’ mother Patricia Larry told police that she also told Spooner they had nothing to do with his stolen property. The criminal complaint says that’s when Spooner pulled out his gun and fired two shots at Simmons' chest, as his mother watched. When police arrived Spooner said, “Yeah I shot him.” [MORE]  The Milwaukee County Medical Examiner’s Office ruled the death a homicide after examining the gunshot wounds on Simmons’ body.

Simmons’ mother claims she was mistreated by Milwaukee police during the initial investigation. She says she was detained in the back of a squad car for several hours. Police forced her to sit in a squad car rather than let her hold her dying son or join him at the hospital. Officers also rifled through her home looking for stolen firearms, and arrested another of her sons on a year-old truancy violation. Nothing unlawful was found in her home from the illegal police search.

“Alleges the concerns of how the police department treated her after they came on the scene and arrested Mr. Spooner — including that she was kept in the back of a squad car for a significant period of time without her having the ability to talk to family members or friends to find out how her son was,” Jon Safran, the attorney for Simmons’ mother said.

Milwaukee Police Chief Ed Flynn has discussed those allegations, saying officers at the scene followed protocol by isolating and interviewing Simmons’ mother because she was a witness to a homicide.

Simmons' uncle, Leon Larry, said he didn't buy Flynn's explanations. He suspected that police knew they screwed up and were spinning the facts to help cover up their errors. "None of it makes sense. My sister was treated like she was the suspect," he said. "And searching the house, it looked like they were trying to give the suspect a reason for what he did, an excuse for what he did. That's garbage."

Safran has filed a notice of claim related to the case — the first step in potentially filing a lawsuit.

Flynn said “we`re obviously going to look at the timeline of that investigation. As a general principle, when somebody`s murdered, our first duty is to bring justice to the victim and that requires us to slow a scene down and get the best, most accurate, immediate account from eyewitnesses. I`ll certainly look and see how we conducted ourselves at this time,” Chief Flynn said.

Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett had asked Milwaukee’s Fire and Police Commission to investigation how Simmons’ mother was treated following the shooting of her son.

The Fire and Police Commission is expected to announced its findings Thursday night.