Wisconsin officer who killed man fired over sex assault charges

By Alex Dobuzinskis

(Reuters) - A police officer in Milwaukee who killed a black man in a shooting in August that sparked nights of rioting in the Wisconsin city was dismissed from the force on Monday over sexual assault charges, officials said.

Dominique Heaggan-Brown, 24, was charged on Oct. 20 in Wisconsin state court with five crimes, including two counts of second-degree sexual assault.

A criminal complaint said Heaggan-Brown sexually assaulted a man on Aug. 14, a day after he fatally shot 23-year-old Sylville Smith, according to local media.

Heaggan-Brown was also charged with having sex with prostitutes and sexually assaulting another person between December 2015 and July 2016, court records showed.

The Milwaukee Police Department said in a statement it terminated Heaggan-Brown effective on Monday.

"The termination is the result of a Milwaukee Police Department internal affairs investigation related to the criminal complaint filed against him on Thursday, October 20," the statement said.

An attorney for Heaggan-Brown did not return a call seeking comment.

Two nights of rioting erupted after Heaggan-Brown, who is African-American, fatally shot Smith on Aug. 13. Police said Smith was armed and refused to drop his gun before he was shot. Heaggan-Brown was not charged in the shooting.

Police killings of blacks have set off large and sometimes violent protests in the United States over the past two years, igniting a national debate over race and policing and giving rise to a renewed civil rights movement driven by activists with the Black Lives Matter movement.

(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis in Los Angeles; Editing by Peter Cooney)

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