FOP Press Release - 10/01/2026

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

FOP CREAM CITY LODGE #8 CONDEMNS JUDGE NIDHI KASHYAP’S DECISION TO MOVE DISTRICT 5 SHOOTER TOWARD CONDITIONAL RELEASE

MILWAUKEE, WI – The FOP Cream City Lodge #8 strongly condemns Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Nidhi Kashyap’s decision finding Darreon Parker-Bell appropriate for conditional release and ordering the development of a plan that could return him to the Milwaukee community.

On February 25, 2022, Parker-Bell walked into Milwaukee Police District #5 armed with a semiautomatic handgun and opened fire inside an occupied police station. Civilians dove for cover. Police employees were behind the counter. A bullet passed within inches of one officer. Parker-Bell fled armed, refused commands to drop his weapon, and was ultimately shot and stopped by Milwaukee police officers. It is a miracle we did not bury a police officer or innocent citizen that day.

Parker-Bell was subsequently 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. Barely three years later, Judge Kashyap has found him appropriate for conditional release. How does anyone look at those facts and conclude that public safety is being served?

Judge Kashyap came to the bench after a career that included nonprofit legal services, domestic violence advocacy and service as a Family Court Commissioner. During her campaign, she spoke about vulnerable members of the community and addressing “systemic issues” in the justice system. We ask Judge Kashyap to consider another vulnerable population: the innocent citizens and police officers who will live with the consequences if this decision is wrong.

Mental illness is real and deserves appropriate treatment. But mental illness cannot become a revolving door through which accountability and public safety disappear. When mental disease or defect removes ordinary criminal responsibility for an extraordinarily violent act, the public has every right to question how improvement in that same condition can become part of a pathway back into the community only a few years later.

“Mental illness may explain behavior, but it does not erase behavior,” said Michael S. Murphy, President of FOP Cream City Lodge #8. “Darreon Parker-Bell did not merely make threats or express disturbing thoughts. He walked into an occupied police station and opened fire. No diagnosis erases that. No clinical report makes those bullets less real. Whatever his condition today, the extraordinary violence he demonstrated that day cannot simply be forgotten.”

Judge Kashyap should not be the only person answering questions. The Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office should explain exactly what it did to oppose this petition and protect the public. The mental-health professionals whose evaluations contributed to this outcome should explain how someone who demonstrated this level of violence can now be considered appropriate for conditional release.

Police officers are investigated, scrutinized and second-guessed for decisions they make in seconds while lives are on the line. Judges, prosecutors and mental-health professionals whose decisions can place a demonstrated violent offender back into the community should expect scrutiny and accountability too.

“Milwaukee police officers already risked their lives once to stop Darreon Parker-Bell,” Murphy continued. “They should never be put in a position where they may have to do it again. Milwaukee’s citizens are not test subjects, and law enforcement should not be the backup plan if the court and mental-health professionals get this decision wrong.”

The people inside District 5 had no choice about being placed in Parker-Bell’s line of fire. The justice system does have a choice about placing the public at risk again.

Law enforcement stopped the threat that day. Now the justice system must decide how much risk the public should be expected to bear. Public safety is not a social experiment!

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Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Nidhi Kashyap - Branch 25