A Routine Patrol Turns Into a Foot Chase and Sudden Gunfire in a Milwaukee Alley

The Milwaukee officers were not responding to a shooting.

They were not racing toward an active gunman.

They were conducting a directed patrol in an area where police had been focusing attention because of recent violent crime.

Then someone on the street flagged them down.

The information was simple but urgent: two individuals had reportedly been flashing guns.

Within minutes, one Milwaukee police officer would be running through a residential neighborhood after a fleeing man. Seconds later, the officer would encounter him in an alley.

Commands to drop the gun would be followed by gunfire.

Both men would be hit.

And an encounter that began with a citizen pointing officers toward suspicious activity would become an officer-involved shooting captured by police cameras.

Milwaukee Police later said two unserialized firearms commonly described as ghost guns were recovered. The wounded suspect, Donte Lamont Gladney, survived a gunshot wound to his knee. Officer Sam Schwabenlander survived a gunshot wound to his lower left leg. A second man, Devin Osborne, was taken into custody nearby.

The footage lasts only a short time.

The decisions inside it happen even faster.

A Directed Patrol Near Hampton Avenue

At approximately 6:46 p.m. on Thursday, June 12, 2025, Milwaukee officers were assigned to patrol around the 4600 block of West Hampton Avenue.

According to MPD, the directed patrol was connected to recent violent crime in the area.

That context is important.

The officers were already actively looking for problems rather than simply driving from one dispatched call to another.

Then members of the community drew their attention to two people reportedly displaying firearms.

The later criminal complaint provides a more detailed picture.

Two officers were traveling in a marked Milwaukee Police squad near the 4500 block of West Hampton when people outside 4522 W. Hampton Avenue flagged them down. After the squad turned around, the group indicated that individuals were running northbound on North 46th Street.

The officers moved toward them.

Instead of remaining for an investigatory stop, the two men ran.

That decision instantly changed the character of the encounter.

The Foot Chase Begins

Foot pursuits create a completely different set of risks from vehicle pursuits.

Inside a squad car, an officer has a protective structure around him.

On foot, almost everything changes.

Visibility becomes limited by buildings, garages, fences, vegetation and corners.

The officer has to run while communicating over the radio.

He has to track the suspect's hands.

He has to remember the route.

He has to monitor the surrounding neighborhood.

And in this case, police had already received information suggesting firearms were involved.

Officer Schwabenlander exited the squad and pursued.

The footage supplied with this case shows the police vehicle moving through narrow residential alleys before the confrontation. The environment is especially significant: garages, houses, fences and vegetation repeatedly interrupt the officer's view.

There is no wide-open field where every movement can be seen.

There are places where a fleeing person can disappear from sight almost instantly.

Then Schwabenlander reaches the alley in the 4800 block of North 46th Street.

The pursuit is about to change again.

The Officer Encounters Gladney

Police identified the man in the alley as Donte Lamont Gladney.

According to the criminal complaint, Schwabenlander encountered Gladney behind the area of 4853 N. 46th Street.

The officer ordered him to drop the firearm.

MPD says Gladney did not comply.

Gunfire followed.

The entire transition from pursuit to shooting happens with very little warning.

That is one of the most important things the released footage communicates.

Watching a police incident afterward allows a viewer to stop the video.

Replay it.

Slow it down.

Examine a frame.

The officer inside the alley has none of those advantages.

He has just been running after someone police believe may be armed.

Then he has to recognize a firearm, issue commands and respond to what happens next.

Thirteen Shots Become Part of the Investigation

The criminal complaint provides forensic detail that was unavailable during the initial news reports.

Investigators determined that Officer Schwabenlander fired nine rounds from his department-issued Glock 45 9mm handgun.

Gladney was alleged to have fired four rounds from a 9mm Polymer80 pistol.

Police recovered nine department-issued cartridge casings from the alley and four additional 9mm casings associated with the other firearm.

Investigators measured several of the casing locations and reported approximately 56 to 58 feet between groups of casings associated with the two shooters.

That evidence matters because police investigations cannot rely solely on how an encounter appears in a fast-moving video.

Investigators reconstruct the physical scene.

Where were the casings?

Where was the firearm?

How many rounds were fired?

Where were the people positioned?

What does the camera show?

What do witnesses say?

Those pieces are combined to create a more complete timeline.

Both the Officer and Gladney Are Hit

The exchange leaves both men wounded.

Schwabenlander suffers a gunshot injury to his lower left leg.

Gladney is hit in his right knee.

Neither injury proves by itself who fired first or whether every shot was legally justified. Those questions require the broader evidence.

But the injuries demonstrate how little separation existed between a foot pursuit and a potentially fatal encounter.

Minutes earlier, the officer was sitting in a patrol vehicle.

Now both he and the man he chased need medical treatment.

Police said no other person was injured by the gunfire.

Considering the residential setting, that fact is significant.

The shooting occurred in an alley surrounded by homes and other structures.

Every missed round in such an environment presents a potential danger beyond the two people directly involved.

A Second Suspect Is Still Somewhere Nearby

The shooting does not eliminate the original problem.

Police had been looking for two men.

Only one is now in the alley.

The second person still has to be located.

Authorities identified him as 19-year-old Devin J. Osborne.

He was eventually arrested without another violent confrontation. Police said a second unserialized Polymer80-style firearm was recovered during the investigation.

That means officers ultimately recovered two guns.

MPD publicly described both as ghost guns.

The term generally refers to privately assembled firearms lacking the conventional manufacturer serial number used on commercially manufactured weapons.

In this case, the absence of serial numbers became another notable feature of the investigation.

The Officer Goes to the Hospital

Schwabenlander was transported for treatment.

Initial reports identified him only as a 30-year-old officer with more than seven years of service.

The following day, there was encouraging news.

He walked out of Froedtert Hospital using crutches.

The Milwaukee Police Association subsequently identified him publicly as Sam Schwabenlander. FOX6 reported that Chief Jeffrey Norman and numerous officers were present when he left the hospital.

The visual contrast is striking.

One evening, he is running through a Milwaukee alley.

Gunfire erupts.

The next day, he is leaving a hospital on crutches.

That sequence is a reminder that bodycam footage usually stops long before the physical consequences do.

Gladney Also Survives

Gladney was likewise taken to a hospital with nonfatal injuries.

Investigators later interviewed him.

According to reporting based on the criminal complaint, Gladney told investigators he had been looking for another person following an earlier confrontation at a store. He acknowledged firing during the alley encounter but gave his own account concerning how the shooting unfolded.

That distinction matters.

Police allegations, defendant statements and forensic evidence are different forms of information.

A responsible account should not simply collapse them into one version.

The criminal complaint represents the prosecution's probable-cause allegations.

Gladney was entitled to contest those allegations through the court system.

The Charges Reveal How Prosecutors Viewed the Shooting

By the time Milwaukee Police released the footage on June 27, both suspects had been criminally charged.

Gladney faced allegations including attempted first-degree intentional homicide, possession of a firearm by a felon, endangering safety through use of a dangerous weapon and obstructing an officer.

Osborne was charged with offenses including carrying a concealed weapon, endangering safety by use of a dangerous weapon and obstructing an officer.

These are allegations.

They should not be described as convictions unless and until the court reaches that point.

But the attempted-homicide charge makes clear how seriously prosecutors interpreted the alleged firing at Schwabenlander.

When Gladney appeared in court on July 2, FOX6 reported that a judge set $75,000 cash bond.

The Physical Evidence Adds Detail the Video Cannot

One of the most interesting items recovered was the pistol found near Gladney.

The complaint describes it as a 9mm Polymer80 pistol without a serial number, equipped with a 15-round magazine.

Investigators reported that the firearm contained 11 unfired cartridges in the magazine and another round in the chamber after the shooting.

Combined with four recovered non-police casings, investigators used that information as part of their reconstruction.

Again, this demonstrates why a bodycam clip is only one layer of evidence.

Video captures perspective.

Ballistics capture physical traces.

Statements provide competing accounts.

Medical records document injuries.

Radio traffic establishes timing.

The complete case emerges only when those pieces are compared.

Why the Alley Matters So Much

The geography of this confrontation deserves attention.

An alley creates a channel.

There may be fences on either side.

Garages.

Backyards.

Utility poles.

Vegetation.

Vehicles.

The officer's options are constrained by the physical space.

A fleeing suspect can disappear behind a structure and then reappear only seconds later.

For an officer pursuing someone believed to be armed, that creates an enormous information disadvantage.

The person ahead knows what he intends to do.

The officer behind him does not.

That asymmetry is one of the fundamental dangers of a foot pursuit.

The officer has to respond to the next development without knowing what it will be.

A Citizen's Warning Started Everything

There is another detail easily forgotten once attention shifts to the shooting.

The incident began because people in the neighborhood communicated with police.

Officers did not randomly select two pedestrians.

According to MPD and the criminal complaint, community members flagged down the squad and directed officers toward individuals they believed were displaying guns.

That means the story involves several layers of community policing at once.

Police had already increased patrol attention because of violent crime.

Residents saw something concerning.

They alerted officers.

Officers attempted to investigate.

The subjects fled.

A pursuit followed.

Then gunfire erupted.

A routine concept, officers talking with residents during patrol, produced an extremely serious encounter within minutes.

The Cameras Preserve Different Perspectives

Milwaukee Police eventually released multiple videos associated with the incident.

The department said its video-release policy creates a presumption that footage involving officer incidents causing death or great bodily harm should be released, while also balancing investigative integrity and privacy concerns.

That transparency matters because one camera rarely captures everything.

A squad camera shows the approach differently from a body-worn camera.

One officer may see something another cannot.

An object obvious in one angle can be obscured in another.

This is why viewers should be cautious about drawing absolute conclusions from a single freeze-frame.

The original uploaded video itself illustrates this.

For much of the beginning, the viewer sees ordinary residential surroundings.

Nothing in the environment announces that gunfire is seconds away.

That normality makes the transition more striking.

The Officer's Recovery Becomes Part of the Story

The shooting could easily have produced a very different outcome.

Instead, both wounded men survived.

For Schwabenlander, the next stage became recovery.

When FOX6 filmed him leaving the hospital on June 13, he was using crutches. Chief Norman publicly emphasized the dangers officers face while carrying out proactive patrol work.

Later, when MPD released the video, the department said the officer was continuing to recover at home and had been placed on administrative duty, which MPD described as routine following an officer-involved shooting.

Administrative duty is important to understand correctly.

It is not, by itself, a declaration that the officer acted improperly.

Departments commonly remove or reassign officers from normal operational duties after shootings while investigations and recovery proceed.

The Case Continues After the Viral Moment

Online, the most dramatic portion of this incident lasts seconds.

An officer runs.

Commands are heard.

Gunfire erupts.

The camera moves.

The confrontation ends.

But the institutional response takes much longer.

Crime-scene personnel process the alley.

Casings are recovered.

Weapons are examined.

Detectives interview witnesses and participants.

Prosecutors review the evidence.

Criminal complaints are drafted.

The officer receives medical care.

The suspect receives medical care.

The second suspect is booked.

Court hearings begin.

MPD reviews video for public release.

The footage finally becomes public about two weeks after the event.

The viral clip is therefore not the complete story.

It is the narrowest and fastest part of it.

Why Foot Pursuits Can Change Without Warning

Vehicle pursuits usually provide visual distance.

An officer can often see the fleeing car ahead.

A foot chase through houses and alleys does not provide the same buffer.

Every corner can conceal the next development.

A person can go from running to stopping in seconds.

Hands can disappear behind a body.

An object can be drawn.

A fence can suddenly block the officer.

A backyard can contain uninvolved residents.

Another person can emerge unexpectedly.

This is why foot pursuits involving suspected firearms create exceptionally difficult decision-making conditions.

None of that automatically answers whether every police action is justified.

It explains why the evidence has to be evaluated in real time rather than solely through slow-motion hindsight.

The Ghost Guns Become Another Part of the Investigation

Police said two ghost guns were recovered.

The complaint provides additional detail, describing Polymer80-style pistols lacking serial numbers.

For investigators, a conventional firearm serial number can help trace the chain from manufacturer to distributor to licensed retailer and initial purchaser.

An unserialized privately assembled firearm can complicate that process.

That does not mean the mere existence of such a firearm proves how it was used.

Ballistics and other evidence still matter.

But in this case, police did not merely recover firearms somewhere in the neighborhood.

Investigators alleged that one of the recovered guns was the pistol Gladney used during the exchange.

That is why the casing counts, magazine contents and weapon location became important pieces of the criminal complaint.

One Minute Can Contain an Entire Case

This incident is a strong example of how misleading the duration of police footage can be.

The decisive portion is incredibly short.

But inside those seconds are multiple legal and tactical questions.

Why did officers approach?

What information did they have?

Why did the men run?

What did the officer see?

What commands were given?

Who fired?

Where were the shooters positioned?

How many rounds were discharged?

What weapons were recovered?

Who was injured?

What happened to the second suspect?

Every question requires evidence beyond the most dramatic five seconds.

That is why the later criminal complaint is so valuable.

It converts the chaos captured on video into measurable details.

Nine officer-fired casings.

Four additional casings.

Two firearms.

Two injured people.

Two arrested suspects.

One alley.

And a confrontation that developed almost immediately after officers were flagged down.

A Patrol That Could Have Ended Very Differently

There is no dramatic warning at the beginning of the footage.

The squad moves through an ordinary Milwaukee neighborhood on a June evening.

Homes line the streets.

Garages face the alley.

Trees are full with summer leaves.

Then a community member's information changes the officers' direction.

Two people run.

Schwabenlander follows.

He enters an alley.

Within moments, he and Gladney are both wounded.

That contrast is what makes the footage so powerful.

Police work is often uneventful until suddenly it is not.

There may be no gradual escalation.

No long standoff.

No time for specialized units to arrive.

The transition from observation to pursuit to gunfire can happen faster than anyone watching later expects.

What the Footage Ultimately Shows

The video does not need exaggerated narration.

The sequence already contains enough tension.

A citizen alerts officers.

Two men flee.

One officer gives chase.

The environment narrows into a residential alley.

The officer encounters Gladney.

Police say commands are given to drop the weapon.

Gunfire follows.

Both men are hit.

Another suspect is arrested.

Two unserialized firearms are recovered.

Then the criminal justice process begins.

MPD's original June 12 statement described the investigation as fluid and ongoing. Two weeks later, the department released footage and confirmed charges had been issued.

For Schwabenlander, the immediate outcome was survival and recovery.

For Gladney and Osborne, the next chapter moved into Milwaukee County court.

And for the public, the release of the footage provided an opportunity to see how quickly an apparently ordinary patrol can become something entirely different.

At 6:46 p.m., officers were patrolling Hampton Avenue.

Moments later, one officer was running north.

Then he entered an alley.

Then shots were fired.

A matter of seconds separated each stage.

That is the defining fact of this case.

The danger did not slowly announce itself.

It arrived around the next corner.