Witness Says Police Shot 18-Year-Old On Bike 5 Times: Report

MOUNT PLEASANT, WI -- An 18-year-old man is dead after police say he was shot and killed by a Mount Pleasant Police Officer during the early-morning hours of June 15.

According to Racine Police, who are investigating the shooting, the person was identified as 18-year-old Tyrese West of Racine.

According to a WISN-TV report, area resident and family friend Verdell Andrews said he went to the shooting scene after hearing news of the shooting come over his police scanner. "That boy is 5-foot-4, 120 pounds. He was pepper-sprayed, tased and shot five times," Andrews said.

According to Mount Pleasant police, officers responded to the 2500 block of Racine Street for an unspecified incident just after 1:30 a.m.

According to information released by the Racine Police Department, a Mount Pleasant officer attempted to make contact with West over an unspecified incident.

Authorities say West fled on a bicycle, but that the responding officer saw that West had been armed. Police have yet to say what West was armed with, or what he did with the weapon police say he had.

Police said the incident escalated and that an officer was "forced to discharge" their firearm at West. Life-saving measures were rendered, however were not successful, police said.

West died at the scene and the Racine County Medical Examiner was called to the area later that morning. Authorities say the Racine Police Department is handling the investigation with assistance from the Wisconsin Department of Justice's Division of Criminal Investigation and the Wisconsin State Patrol.

Court records show that West had been arrested a number of times between 2017 and 2018. Though he had been arrested, friends who came out to a memorial service over the weekend spoke kindly of him.

"He was a great kid. Sometimes people make mistakes but he had his whole life ahead of him to turn that around and they took that away from him. He didn't get the chance,” friend Morgan Bebow said in a WTMJ report.

West pleaded guilty to negligent operation of a motor vehicle, false imprisonment and driving a vehicle without the owner's consent in August of 2018.

He was arrested and charged earlier that same August for resisting an officer and disorderly conduct. He had been charged with theft in March 2018.

Court records also show that West had been charged with first-degree recklessly endangering safety-use of a dangerous weapon in August 2017, though that charge was dismissed by prosecutors during court proceedings.