The morning rush on Milwaukee’s south side was just getting underway when a routine police contact turned into a deadly confrontation that would leave a family grieving and a community asking hard questions.
Jonathan Otto, a 35-year-old tow truck driver and father of two, was shot and killed Thursday morning after a Milwaukee police officer fired his weapon while hanging onto the side of Otto’s moving truck. The shooting followed a brief but tense encounter that unfolded across several city blocks.
Police said the incident began shortly before 10 a.m. near the intersection of 12th Street and Burnham Street. Officers, along with a Wisconsin Department of Corrections agent, approached Otto because he was wanted for a patrol violation. At the time, he was sitting inside a flatbed tow truck with another person in the passenger seat.
According to Milwaukee Police Chief Jeffrey Norman, officers ordered Otto to step out of the truck. When he refused, an officer attempted to pull him from the vehicle. Instead, Otto suddenly drove off. The officer ended up clinging to the driver’s side of the truck as it sped away.
Authorities say the truck traveled several blocks through the neighborhood while the officer held on. During that time, the officer repeatedly ordered Otto to stop and warned that he would shoot if the driver did not comply. The pursuit came to a sudden end near 15th Street and Grant Avenue when the officer fired his weapon.
Otto was struck by the gunfire and the truck came to a stop. He died at the scene. The officer involved suffered non-fatal injuries and was treated before being placed on administrative duty, which is standard procedure after an officer-involved shooting. The passenger inside the truck was taken to a hospital as a precaution.
As word of the shooting spread, relatives and friends gathered near the scene for hours. Among them was Otto’s mother, Tracy Broyld, who struggled to understand why the situation ended in deadly force. She said her son had made mistakes in the past but insisted he was not a violent man.
Broyld described Otto as someone who loved working as a tow truck driver and remained deeply connected to his family. She said the hardest part now is explaining the loss to his children and finding a way forward after a sudden and painful tragedy.
In the days since the shooting, Otto’s family launched a fundraiser titled “Honoring Jonathan ‘Jaybird’ Otto.” The campaign aims to help cover funeral costs and support the loved ones he left behind. Family members wrote that their hearts were shattered and asked the community for prayers and support.
The Milwaukee Area Investigative Team, led by the West Allis Police Department, has taken over the investigation. Under department policy, Otto’s family is expected to be allowed to review body-camera footage within 48 hours as investigators work to determine exactly how the encounter escalated so quickly.
For now, a stretch of Milwaukee streets that usually hum with everyday life has become the center of a painful story—one about a father, a split-second decision, and the questions that follow when a routine police contact ends in death.
