MILWAUKEE – Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson issued a proclamation recognizing National Gun Violence Awareness Day on Saturday, part of “Wear Orange Weekend” and National Gun Violence Awareness Month.

Johnson said local organizations have distributed hundreds of gun locks across the city and shared safety information with residents this weekend. He also said the city is offering free youth programming all summer through its “Hello Summer” initiative.

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“Change is something that all of us can accomplish together, each and every single one of us,” he said, “if we come together, if we stand behind a common cause to reduce gun violence and make sure that people who should not have their hands on guns in the first place, don’t get the chance to do it.”

“Wear Orange Weekend” began as a tribute to a teen who was shot and killed in Chicago. It has now become a recognized movement to reduce gun violence nationwide.

By the numbers:

The most recently available Milwaukee Police Department crime data shows, as of June 5, there have been 205 non-fatal shootings in the city this year – a 15% drop compared to the same point in 2024 and a 39% drop compared to 2023. While the city tracks homicides overall, it does not track fatal shootings, specifically, on its dashboard. 

Those statistics do not include a violent stretch that began Friday afternoon and continued into Saturday morning. Milwaukee police responded to at least four shootings that left two people dead and seven others wounded. Two shootings happened minutes apart on Hampton Avenue.

As the Houston Rockets gear up for free agency this summer, one player they could circle back to is Milwaukee Bucks center Brook Lopez. Some fans will remember during the 2023 offseason when Brook Lopez was a target for Houston, before the center ultimately chose to stick with the Bucks for another attempt at another title.

With those attempts falling short, the former two-time All-Defensive player could be on the move this summer, with a potential flame reigniting with the Houston front office in attempts to add a veteran floor spacer and depth at the center position.

Lopez, who is set to be on the way out of Milwaukee as the team heads for a rebuild, is eligible for an extension, although it has already been mentioned that the veteran center will more than likely head for unrestricted free agency.

While it has been reported that veteran center Steven Adams is one of the Rockets’ highest priorities this summer, if the New Zealand center is offered a bigger contract elsewhere as an unrestricted free agent, then a play for Brook Lopez could be in the cards for Houston.

“If Adams leaves, team sources said the Rockets could reignite their interest in Brook Lopez. The 37-year-old, who averaged 13.0 points, 5.0 rebounds and 1.9 blocks per game shooting 37 percent from 3 in Milwaukee last season, was previously a target for Houston and would theoretically be a fit, given his two-way production and health (played 237 games over the last three seasons).” said Kelly Iko of The Athletic.

Lopez is a big-time threat in the paint as a defender as well, logging almost two blocks per game average for the past three seasons. He offers a two-way play style that Rockets head coach Ime Udoka covets in his players.

Whether or not Adams is re-signed is remained to be seen this offseason, but if he is not, expect the Rockets to be in play for a veteran like Brook Lopez.

• Members of the Fire and Police Commission, the city’s hiring body for its police chief, indicated they were in support of rehiring Jeffrey Norman as the city’s police chief.
• Norman’s current tenure ends in November, but the commission’s chair said the group would make its final decision on June 26.
• Norman has worked for the department since 1996 and been chief since 2020, when he was named acting chief. He was made permanent chief in 2021.

As his contract comes up for renewal, Milwaukee’s police chief received strong signals of support early in his rehiring process.

Almost all of the city’s Fire and Police Commission, the oversight body that handles hiring of the police chief, signaled they were in support of Police Chief Jeffrey Norman’s rehiring. The commission is slated to make its final decision on Norman’s reappointment June 26.

“He’s one of the best qualified chiefs I’ve ever known,” said Miriam Horwitz, the commission’s chair.

With seven of the commission’s nine members in attendance at the meeting, six said they were in support of rehiring Norman, who did not attend the commission meeting. Norman’s current contract expires Nov. 15.

Norman previously told the Journal Sentinel he would take an offer, if the commission extended it to him.

“I believe our department has made great strides,” Norman said at the time. “I desire to continue to build upon that.”

The commission’s support follows Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson saying he was in support of rehiring the chief as well.

At the June 5 meeting, activist Vaun Mayes and Levi Stein, president of the Friendship Circle of Wisconsin, said they were in support of Norman’s rehiring as well.

Mayes, who leads the organization Community Task Force, said a past police chief indicated he would talk with community groups, regardless of their support, and that did not happen. Norman has done that consistently, he said.

With the Fire and Police Commission no longer having policymaking power for the city’s police department due to a 2023 state law, Mayes said it was important to maintain Norman’s place in Milwaukee’s department.

After that law, called Act 12, was passed, Norman elected to move a new bodycam footage release policy forward, despite opposition from the city’s police union.

“I am very afraid of the wrong person coming in with that kind of power and what they could and couldn’t do,” Mayes said.

Norman, who is in his 29th year in law enforcement, has spent his entire policing career with the city’s department.

He was hired as acting chief of the department in 2020 and named police chief the following year, following the retirement of another acting chief and the controversial removal of former chief Alfonso Morales in 2020.

The Milwaukee native was first hired in 1996 and served as a lieutenant in the homicide unit and captain of District 3, which includes parts of the central city and west side.

Norman was hired as chief, in part, due to his track record of community engagement.

Since being named chief, Norman has led the department through the crime spikes amid the COVID-19 pandemic, heavy local and state policy change after George Floyd’s murder prompted national outrage and policing during the Republican National Convention.

Rocky periods have occurred during his tenure.

During the Republican National Convention, he and the department came under scrutiny after Columbus, Ohio, police officers shot and killed Sam Sharpe Jr. The officers, who did not face charges in the shooting, shot him about a mile from the convention’s perimeter after the officers saw Sharpe appear to move toward another man while wielding knives.

The officers were not accompanied by local police, which top department officials previously indicated any out-of-state officers would be in the lead-up to the convention. After the shooting, Norman later acknowledged local officers should have been with the Ohio police officers.

The department also came under scrutiny for its handling of events in the lead-up to the homicide of Bobbie Lou Schoeffling. Schoeffling, a 31-year-old mother of two, had been reporting abuse and threats from her ex-boyfriend.

Schoeffling was found shot to death on July 26, 2022. Her ex-boyfriend, Nicholas Howell, was convicted of killing Schoeffling last year and sentenced to life in prison.

Norman initially declined an interview with the Journal Sentinel into the department’s handling of the case but after the new organization published an investigation into her death, he ordered a review of every contact the department had with Schoeffling. The review led to the suspension of four officers.

“We have recognized our shortcomings and we, I believe, have a proven track record of … being open to feedback and working with the communities,” Norman said at the time he opened the review.

In 2024, Norman was a finalist for the police chief position in Austin, Texas, but was ultimately passed on for the role. At that time, a department spokesperson said Norman remained “steadfast” in his commitment to Milwaukee.

The chief previously declined to tell the Journal Sentinel in May whether he has applied for other jobs as his term approaches its end in Milwaukee. He said he was focused on reappointment locally.

Norman’s pay appears to have been negotiated in the months leading up to his reappointment discussions. The Fire and Police Commission’s executive committee has met in closed session four times regarding senior law enforcement pay.

While the city of Milwaukee’s Common Council sets the pay range for the chief of police position, the Fire and Police Commission ultimately selects what the salary is in that range.

Leon Todd, the commission’s executive director, said he could not address what was discussed in those meetings.

Norman made a gross salary of $177,112.44 in 2024, according to the city’s online pay databases.

The Fire and Police Commission will hold two public comment sessions for Norman’s rehiring before the June 26 vote.

David Clarey is a public safety reporter at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. He can be reached at dclarey@gannett.com.