A homeless man was shot because there were too many cops around.

14th and Vliet is near the secure zone of the Republican National Convention, but we have no reason to believe this incident is connected to events at the RNC.

TMJ4 spoke to two people, who said they witnessed the shooting, telling TMJ4 they saw a man walk across Vliet St., and said police followed him across the street, and shot the man in the back.

According to the witnesses, the man lived at a nearby homeless encampment with them and was just trying to cross the street when police shot him.

“More than 4,000 additional law enforcement officials are in Milwaukee for the RNC, and we’ve long feared how this heavy police presence could increase the risk of deadly police encounters, especially by out-of-state officers who don’t know and aren’t accountable to our community. We offer our condolences to the friends and family of the person killed.”