Sherman Park arson investigation focuses on Facebook, Instagram video

Nine months after businesses were looted and buildings burned near Sherman Park in the wake of a police shooting, the criminal investigation into who started the fires continues.   

Newly unsealed search warrants show that federal agents and police detectives have been focusing on video of looting and the fires that were posted to social media accounts at the time of the rioting. 

Fifteen newly unsealed federal search warrants show agents from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco,Firearms and Explosives searched 14 phones and computers and a home in August, weeks after the unrest. The warrants were sealed last August and become publicly available earlier this month.

A different warrant unsealed in state court recently seeks information from Facebook about certain accounts that featured riot video at the same time.

ATF spokeswoman Ashlee Sherrill said Wednesday the arson investigation is ongoing. She declined to comment further because the case is open.

An official from the U.S. attorney's office declined to comment. An official from the Milwaukee district attorney's office did not immediately return a call for comment. The ATF and Milwaukee police are offering a reward for information on the arson.

The rioting followed the fatal shooting of Sylville  Smith by Milwaukee Police Officer Dominique Heaggan-Brown. Heaggan-Brown, who has been fired, was charged with first-degree reckless homicide in the shooting of Smith.

During two nights in August, eight businesses were torched, at least six squad cars were damaged, at least four officers were injured and two teens were wounded in separate shootings. Authorities estimated the damage at several million dollars.

COMPLETE COVERAGE: Milwaukee Sherman Park turmoil | Sequence of events

According to the federal search warrant affidavit, shortly after the rioting investigators sought video posted to Facebook and Instagram accounts that showed the unrest, including the burning of a police squad car and the BP gas station at 3114 N. Sherman Blvd.

The squad car was set on fire by someone who placed a road flare in its gas tank, according to the warrant. A person taking video "is heard encouraging the subject." The warrant does not indicate what was said.

In October, a warrant was unsealed revealing that a Milwaukee man was under investigation for allegedly making Molotov cocktails that were used to burn down several buildings during the rioting.

The Journal Sentinel is not naming the people listed in the warrants because they are not charged.

At least four people have been charged with stealing items from stores during the looting that followed the shooting. All but one of those have been sentenced.

John Diedrich can be reached at john.diedrich@jrn.com and on Twitter at @john_diedrich.