Man shot by Milwaukee police subject of witness intimidation case

MILWAUKEE — The man shot and killed by a Milwaukee police officer Saturday was charged last year in a shooting and then charged again, with trying to intimidate a witness in that same shooting, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has learned.

The man shot by police was 23-year-old Sylville Smith, police sources and Smith's family told the Journal Sentinel.

Smith was charged with first-degree recklessly endangering safety and with witness intimidation, but the charges were dismissed, court records show.

The charges were dropped even though the prosecutors had recorded jail calls in which Smith asked his girlfriend to pressure the victim to recant, according to court records.

In the witness intimidation case, Smith was accused of pressuring the victim in a shooting to recant a statement identifying him as the suspect, according to the criminal complaint.

Prosecutors with the Milwaukee County district attorney’s office were not immediately available Sunday to explain why the charges were dismissed.

Milwaukee police say Smith was armed when he fled a traffic stop about 3:30 p.m. Saturday. The officer ordered Smith to drop his gun and when he did not, the officer fired and wounded the man in the chest and arm, according to preliminary information provided by Mayor Tom Barrett.

Mildred Haynes, Smith’s mother, said police have told her very little so far about the death of her son, who is a father to a 2-year-old boy.

“My son is gone due to the police killing my son,” she said Sunday. “I am lost.”

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Haynes said her son does not have a felony record but acknowledged he had been arrested. Online court records show Smith has one prior conviction for carrying a concealed weapon, a misdemeanor.

Smith was charged with first-degree recklessly endangering safety, a felony, on Feb. 3, 2015. Details of the shooting were not immediately clear from the documents.

While that case was pending, Smith was charged with felony witness intimidation after prosecutors said he was intimidating the victim in the first case.

According to the criminal complaint in the intimidation case:

Smith called his girlfriend from jail and instructed her to call the victim and tell him to fill out a sworn affidavit saying Smith did not commit the crime. He called at least two other times and urged her to continue leaning on the victim, saying: “Stay on dude” and “When they get this letter, this (expletive) gone, then my case should be out of here.”

The victim ultimately did file a statement recanting his identification of Smith as the shooter. Prosecutors moved to dismiss the witness intimidation charge in September 2015.

The shooting case moved forward to a jury trial in November 2015, but it ultimately was dismissed when the victim did not show up and was uncooperative, according to online court records.

Family speaks

Smith’s mother, Haynes, said her son had recently gotten his conceal-carry license because he had been shot twice and robbed four times – and was stripped of all his clothes during one robbery.

Haynes said she last saw her son about 12:30 p.m. Saturday when he and another man were stopped by police. She said she missed a call from him at 3 p.m., when she thinks he was being chased by police.

She said she called him back, but he didn't answer. She then got a call from someone who told her what was happening. She said she raced over to the area, but couldn't find out what was going on.

"They wouldn't let me see him," she said of police.

She said she doesn't think her son would pull a weapon on police. She said she could envision him running and hiding.

The man arrested with Smith was Demario D. Pritchard, according to police records and sources. Earlier this year Pritchard, 24, was found guilty of felony possession of cocaine. Online court records show he lived in Green Bay.

On Sunday afternoon, a young girl sat with her head in her hands, crying, outside the home where Smith stayed with his mother and other family members.

"I'm not going to say he was an angel. He was out here living his life,” Smith’s godmother, Katherine Mahmoud, said.

She added that the family had nothing to do with the uprising overnight.

“We’re not very happy about it,” she said of the unrest.

Darin Ware, 51, a former security guard at the Mary Ryan Boys & Girls Club, remembered Smith coming to the club when he was about 12.

"He was always kind of a troubled kid,” Ware said. “He was a fun kid but he was not without issues."

"We deal that with him as best we could, even though we could have kicked him out a hundred times," he added.

Ware grew up in Sherman Park and knows many people here.

"Without knowing all the details I don’t want to say he was at fault or the police were at fault,” Ware said. “It's just a shame."

Contributing: Rick Romell and John Diedrich