Milwaukee is weighing a $225,000 settlement with a man who says two police officers punched and Tased him during a shoplifting stop at a Target store in 2023, leaving him with a gash in his head that required staples. The Common Council is expected to vote on the proposed payout next Wednesday, November 4.
Jacob Enriquez sued the City of Milwaukee, the Milwaukee Police Department and officers Bradley Johnson and Thomas Kresa in August 2025, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. The lawsuit stems from a December 22, 2023 encounter at a Target store, where Johnson and Kresa were on duty when a Target employee summoned them, believing Enriquez was stealing a jacket.
According to the lawsuit, Kresa punched Enriquez in the head at least seven times after officers shoved him to the ground, and Johnson used a Taser on his back. Enriquez was taken to a hospital afterward, where he received three staples for a 3-centimeter laceration on his head, the newspaper's report states.
What the Lawsuit Alleges
The lawsuit concerns Enriquez's encounter with the officers. The city has proposed a $225,000 settlement to resolve the case.
The Common Council's Judiciary and Legislation Committee — a body that, per the City of Milwaukee, handles legal claims against the city — unanimously recommended the settlement this past Monday. If the full council approves it on November 4, the matter would then go to Mayor Cavalier Johnson.
Other Police Settlements
The proposed settlement comes amid other police-related cases in Milwaukee.
The Enriquez case would join a long list of costly police-related payouts in Milwaukee. Just last summer, the city moved forward with $600,000 in settlements covering two separate misconduct lawsuits, as reported by the Journal Sentinel in its coverage of a July council committee vote.
A Pattern of Large Payouts
The city has also faced other police-related lawsuits.
Other payouts have climbed even higher. Milwaukee previously settled a stop-and-frisk lawsuit covering 74 plaintiffs for $6 million, according to Wisconsin Public Radio. A separate $3.4 million settlement resolved allegations that police used racial profiling in stop-and-frisk practices, as reported by NPR, which also cited an alderman's estimate that the city had paid $23 million in police misconduct settlements since 2015.
The family of Dontre Hamilton, who was fatally shot by an on-duty officer in 2014, received a $2.3 million settlement, Wisconsin Public Radio also reported. Whether the Common Council approves the Enriquez settlement next week remains to be seen, as does any further response from the city, the officers involved, or Enriquez himself.
