The Corey Ruiz shooting unfolded on Madison's Near East Side after bystander video appears to show Madison police officers using a Taser, then firing three shots that killed Corey Durell Ruiz. Ruiz was 38.
The video adds a concrete sequence to the fatal encounter. It shows a struggle with officers while Ruiz held a knife, a second officer preparing to fire a Taser, and Ruiz grabbing at an officer's Taser with his left hand as it was fired.
Madison police on the Near East Side
A Madison police officer first hit Ruiz with a Taser. After Ruiz fell to the pavement, another officer stomped on his hip, and the officer at the rear then fired three shots. Those shots killed him.
The images matter because they place the Taser use and the gunfire in the same fast-moving sequence, not as separate moments. That leaves the public with a visual record of the confrontation before the official review has finished.
Corey Durell Ruiz
Ruiz was seen holding a knife during the encounter. A third officer, kneeling, pushed away Ruiz's right hand, which held the knife, before the shooting.
A friend described Ruiz as a good person and said, "He was a good person" and "We all have our demons or whatever, but I never ever seen that man arguing with nobody."
DCI review
It could be weeks or months before the public gets answers through the official investigation. For now, the video is the clearest account of the minutes before Ruiz died, while the judgment about the officers' actions has not been laid out in public.
What investigators conclude about the Taser use and the three shots will shape whether the video stands as evidence of a justified use of force or a fatal escalation that still needs explanation.
