MADISON, Wis. — The mother of Corey Ruiz, a man fatally shot by Madison police, remembered her son as an extraordinary person who was deeply devoted to his young daughter and his family.
“He was my love. He loved his daughter, he loved his family. He did not deserve to be taken out like that. They took my baby from me,” Elsa Ruiz said through tears. She added that she never thought she would be preparing to lay her son to rest.
Her emotional remarks came during a Thursday news conference, the family’s first public statement since Ruiz, 38, was killed Wednesday on a busy Madison street. According to police, Ruiz pulled out a knife during a confrontation involving four officers and injured one of them. Police said that officer then opened fire.
The four officers involved have been placed on administrative leave while a state investigation moves forward. Madison’s independent police monitor has also launched a separate review of the fatal police shooting.
Ruiz’s relatives vowed to push for justice in his death. Standing with them was prominent civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who condemned the shooting and described it as an unjustified “execution.”
RELATED: Developers Eye California Lake Town’s Last Open Shoreline
“Anytime there is excessive use of force, there should be accountability,” Crump said, calling the incident “shocking on every level.”
Cellphone video of the shooting spread widely across social media, but Madison Police Chief John Patterson said Thursday that the footage does not capture the encounter from the officers’ point of view.
Unlike most cities of comparable size, Madison does not require police officers to wear body cameras, meaning there is no official body-worn camera video showing what the officers saw during the confrontation.
“Thank God there was video,” Crump said. “If there wasn’t video, imagine what the narrative would have been.”
Copyright © 2026 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
