Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Tiffany is tying a controversial Milwaukee court decision back to Democratic opponent David Crowley, blasting the Milwaukee County executive after a judge Crowley endorsed opened the door to conditional release for a man who shot up a Milwaukee police station.
As the Heartland Post previously reported, Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Nidhi Kashyap ruled that Darreon Parker-Bell is a candidate for conditional release and ordered the state to develop a release plan. Parker-Bell remains in custody, and the ruling does not mean he will immediately be released.
Parker-Bell walked into Milwaukee Police District 5 in February 2022 and opened fire with a semiautomatic handgun while civilians and police employees were inside. One bullet passed through a partition inches from an officer’s head, according to the Milwaukee Police Association.
After fleeing the station while still armed, Parker-Bell ignored commands to drop his weapon and pointed it toward officers before police shot and stopped him. He was later found not criminally responsible by reason of mental disease or defect and committed to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services for 30 years in June 2023.
Now, a little more than three years into that commitment, Kashyap has ordered DHS and Wisconsin Community Services to prepare a conditional-release plan. A hearing is scheduled for December 7.
The Milwaukee Police Association has strongly opposed the move, with MPA President Alex Ayala questioning how Parker-Bell could already be considered for release after an attack that ultimately prompted Milwaukee police stations to install protective glass.
Tiffany is now bringing this decision into the governor’s race.
“This is David Crowley’s soft-on-crime record coming full circle,” Tiffany said in a statement. “A man opened fire inside a Milwaukee police station, and now, just over three years into a 30-year commitment, the judge David Crowley endorsed has ruled Parker-Bell is a candidate for conditional release.”
Crowley endorsed Kashyap during her campaign for the bench, praising her experience and saying she would “make an excellent Judge.”
Tiffany also sought to connect the case to Crowley’s broader record and campaign support.
“David Crowley has spent years supporting policies to weaken criminal penalties, and now his campaign has accepted a maximum $20,000 contribution from a California megadonor whose foundation called for defunding police departments across the United States,” Tiffany said. “As governor, I will stand with law enforcement and victims, not the soft-on-crime policies that put dangerous individuals back into our communities.”
The donor Tiffany referenced is California philanthropist Quinn Delaney, who the campaign says contributed $20,000 to Crowley on August 12.
Delaney co-founded the Akonadi Foundation, an Oakland-based racial justice organization that publicly supported efforts to defund police during the 2020 protests and backed a campaign seeking to eliminate the Oakland Unified School District’s police department.
The attack on District 5 was serious enough that Ayala told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel it prompted a security overhaul that included protective glass in Milwaukee police buildings.
“This person should not be eligible to be outside of any confinement,” Ayala told the paper, arguing Parker-Bell should remain institutionalized for the duration of the 30-year commitment.
Parker-Bell has not yet been released. The next step is for state officials to develop the conditional-release plan ordered by Kashyap, after which the court will continue considering the case.
But with the Milwaukee Police Association vowing to fight the potential release and Tiffany putting Crowley’s endorsement of Kashyap under the microscope, the case has now spilled directly into Wisconsin’s race for governor.
