Maria Hamilton, mother of Dontre Hamilton, is handed flowers during a “Dontre Day” event at Red Arrow Park in 2016. (NNS file photo)

A decade has passed since Dontre Hamilton was shot and killed by a Milwaukee police officer at Red Arrow Park in downtown Milwaukee. His death sparked widespread calls for police reforms and other changes to help improve the community’s relationship with the Milwaukee Police Department. The results of those efforts, according to Dontre Hamilton’s family and others, are mixed. 

I chose this story because it highlights the ongoing fight for justice and police reforms being led by his mother, Maria Hamilton, and brother Nate Hamilton.  

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Raised in a South Side neighborhood where he still lives, Edgar Mendez is the managing editor of the Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service. Mendez is a proud graduate of UW-Milwaukee, where he double majored in journalism and sociology, and of Marquette University, where he earned a master’s degree in communication. He won a 2018 Regional Edward R. Murrow Award and 2014, 2017, and 2018 Milwaukee Press Club Awards for his reporting on taverns, marijuana law enforcement, and lead in water service lines. In 2008, he won a Society of Professional Journalists’ regional award for columns dealing with issues such as poverty, homelessness and racism. His writing has been published by the Associated Press, Reuters, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and other media. He has also co-authored three articles published in scholarly journals.