Police officers involved in the incident said they saw McKissick and other young people lighting gasoline- filled bottles and throwing them into a paint store.
McKissick’s family filed a lawsuit alleging the officer who shot him used excessive force.
On October 30, 1975, eleven years after Clifford McKissick’s death, the law firm of Eisenberg & Kletzke S.C., who had earlier represented the family in the original lawsuit, argued on appeal before the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
Mr. Hupy, who had only graduated from law school about 4 years prior, found the facts in the case shocking and appalling; Hupy stated, “Clifford McKissick was an 18 year old young man needlessly killed by the police in his own house.
When asked about the similarities of the cases, Hupy stated, “The clearest similarity is the ‘shoot first, ask questions later’ attitude of the police officers involved, and their blatant racism in regards to handling the victims.”
