MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN — A 35-year-old tow truck driver was shot and killed by a Milwaukee police officer Thursday morning after driving off from an attempted arrest with the officer holding onto the driver's side door of the vehicle for several blocks, in an incident his mother says was driven by her son's fear of being taken back to jail on a parole warrant.

^{Credit: Ana Rios}

The incident began at approximately 10 a.m. on March 12, 2026, near 12th and Burnham on Milwaukee's south side, when Milwaukee Police Department officers and a Wisconsin Department of Corrections agent encountered Johnathan Otto in a flatbed tow truck. According to Police Chief Jeffrey Norman, an officer ordered Otto out of the vehicle, but Otto refused. When the officer attempted to remove Otto from the truck, Otto sped away with the officer still holding onto the driver's side door. Otto drove for several blocks, refusing multiple commands to stop — even after the officer warned he would shoot if Otto did not pull over. A second officer was in pursuit. The officer holding onto the vehicle ultimately fired, striking Otto. The pursuit ended near 15th and Grant. Otto was pronounced deceased. A passenger in the flatbed truck was not injured but was taken to a hospital as a precaution.

The officer, a 46-year-old man with more than 21 years of service, sustained non-fatal injuries and has been placed on administrative duty, which is routine following a shooting incident. The Milwaukee Area Investigative Team will investigate the shooting, with the West Allis Police Department serving as the lead agency.

Witness Ana Rios described the moment Otto's truck passed by. "We see his truck driving very fast with the cop from the window. He was screaming at the driver to stop. It was actually pretty shocking," Rios said.

Otto's mother, Tracy Broyld, confirmed that her son had a history of fleeing from police and that fear of his parole warrant drove his decision to drive off. "My son always ran. If you look at his record, he has a lot of fleeing and eluding," Broyld said. Otto had been on parole since 2023 following two felony convictions for driving away from police — one in Waukesha County in 2015 involving a stolen car, and a second in Milwaukee County where Otto told police he fled because he was "scared about a probation warrant." Broyld said a parole warrant was again the reason he drove off when officers arrived at his girlfriend's house Wednesday. "All this happened over his PO issuing a warrant, and it was a PO check or something," she said. Broyld added that Otto had recently missed check-ins with his parole officer due to issues with his personal car, and that she was unaware of any new charges. "It wasn't anything that I knew of in terms of new charges or anything like that. He missed visits and wasn't in contact with his parole officer," she said.

While acknowledging her son should have stopped, Broyld questioned why the situation escalated to a fatal shooting. "He should have stopped, I get it. You couldn't just jump off and let the patrol cars behind him continue to chase. Why did the gun come out, and why was it pointed at his head, not another part of his body? It seems like he shot to kill," Broyld said. She also questioned why a taser was not used instead. "Yeah, he should've stopped and that did not deserve the shooting in his head. I really want to know why. Why the gun, why not the taser? Why were you so quick to pull out the gun?"

Broyld remembered her son as a devoted father and caring person. "He's a very good person. He will do anything for anybody. He's a daddy. He's a brother. He is my oldest child. He didn't deserve it. He did not deserve it," she said. Otto had two children.

Chief Norman addressed the incident directly. "This was a totally avoidable incident. At the end of the day, this could have been prevented. There is a time and place, when you have a disagreement with law enforcement, to be able to have your day in court. The court is not on these streets," Norman said.

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