Jordan Morales, Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson’s nominee for the city’s Fire and Police Commission, was suspended and ultimately forced to resign his position as an air traffic controller after leaving a loaded handgun in a bathroom stall at Mitchell International Airport, the Heartland Post has learned exclusively.
On April 16, 2022, Milwaukee County Sheriff’s deputies assigned to the Airport Division for a report of a gun found in the men’s bathroom of the Air Traffic Controller Tower. The Tower’s supervisor found the gun in its holster on a stall railing in the men’s room and summoned deputies to the scene at about 7:30 pm, a Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office report obtained by the Heartland Post reveals.
Bringing a gun to an Air Traffic Control facility is a severe federal crime punishable by up to a year in prison. It is also a felony under Wisconsin law to bring a gun into a secure area of an airport. Morales was never charged by either federal or state authorities, but he was suspended for months and ultimately forced to resign from Air Traffic Control over the incident.
Morales was nominated last week to fill the vacancy left by Bree Spencer, whose term ended July 13th. A public hearing to introduce Morales before the Milwaukee Common Council votes on his nomination is set for Monday evening.
That supervisor told deputies that he had been alerted to the gun by a night shift employee, and an agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) determined that it belonged to Morales. He admitted that it was his and was taken to the Sheriff’s Office substation at the airport for questioning.
“Mr. Morales stated that he was running errands immediately before work and had his concealed carry weapon on his person the whole time,” a deputy wrote in his report. “He did not realize that he had the firearm on his person in the Air Traffic Control building until he went to the bathroom and took it off and placed it on the railing of the stall.”
Morales said that he intended to take the gun back to his truck after using the bathroom but forgot.
“He then realized that he had left the gun in the stall once he bussed a deputy into the Tower Complex.”
The Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office declined to pursue a criminal case against Morales, but he was immediately placed on administrative leave pending the results of an Air Traffic Control investigation. Ultimately, Morales was allowed to resign rather than be fired, a source confirmed to the Heartland Post.
“Jordan Morales’s civic engagement is noteworthy,” Johnson said in a news release announcing Morales’ appointment last week. “He has been a prominent voice on traffic safety and crime reduction in Milwaukee. He will champion the interests of our residents in this important new role.”
