The outcry began building almost as fast as the crowd did, after a Madison police officer shot and killed a man in his 30's on Wednesday at the intersection of Williamson and Baldwin streets on the city’s near east side.

People who witnessed the shooting, or watched it on one of the many videos circulating on social media, gathered where crime scene tape marked off the area.

And the confrontation was swift. “All over a bike? Shit. Goddamn. You guys suck. Biggest fucking gang in town right here, wearing badges, protecting property,” yelled one person at the dozens of officers lined up at the scene Wednesday afternoon. Social media was similarly awash in condemnations.

For many, the killing on Williamson Street evoked a feeling of deja vu: Tony Robinson was shot and killed by Madison police officer Matt Kenny in 2015 a block and a half away; Paulie Heenan was fatally shot by a police officer in 2012, on nearby South Baldwin Street.

Shadayra Kilfoy-Flores, a community activist, former chair of Madison’s Police Civilian Oversight Board, and a friend of Robinson’s family, said the shooting happened right in front of her car as she drove east on Williamson.

“I come out of the Willy Street Co-op and the police are flying around the corner here on Baldwin,” she said. “I’m trying to figure out what’s going on and the next thing I know they have a guy with a bike stopped. It was literally less than three minutes after they had him stopped that he was dead. They shoved him off his bike and he’s on the ground when they started shooting at him.

“I saw the whole thing,” she said. “The whole thing.”

Protesters eventually moved from the near east side to downtown Madison, just as thousands were gathering on the Capitol lawn and at tables for Concerts on the Square. Demonstrators took over the stage and chanted as they moved through the crowd. The chamber orchestra eventually announced the concert was cancelled.

At a late afternoon press briefing — pushed back to give time for the family to be notified — Police Chief John Patterson started with an acknowledgement.

“Today involves a very traumatic incident: a traumatic incident that has occurred in a neighborhood that has experienced a lot of trauma in the past and history of incidents,” he said, alluding to the fatal officer shooting of Robinson.

Patterson acknowledged that a man in his 30's had died, but said he could not share his name, or the name of the officers involved.

Four officers are being placed on administrative leave, and the Department of Justice’s Division of Criminal Investigation is investigating, per a state law that requires external police to review shootings and killings by police officers. Investigations are typically posted online when they are completed; potential charges are referred to the relevant district attorney; Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne was observed at the scene Wednesday afternoon.

Patterson told the media that the incident started after Madison police officers were dispatched to the Marquette neighborhood just before 1 p.m. over “a report of a person allegedly checking parked vehicles.” The man fled on bicycle, and police found him again at the intersection of Baldwin and Williamson streets.

Patterson said when officers attempted to arrest the man, he produced a knife and a “veteran officer” was injured. Officers then used a taser, which Patterson said didn’t work. The same officer who was injured by the knife fired his gun, Patterson added.

Videos circulating on social media show three officers restraining the man as a fourth appears to produce a taser. The man begins to fall. Then three gunshots ring out. Chief Patterson warned against making conclusions based on the videos.

“I'm aware of the cell phone video that has been shared and circulated online depicting this incident. I ask [that] the community recognize that there is other video that they have not seen that's not circulating online that will be reviewed as part of this investigation. So, to the extent that they can, as we all navigate this trauma together, we try to remain calm, and remember that not all perspectives are online right now.”

As the news conference proceeded downtown, the crowd gathered near the scene of the shooting grew to more than 100. Some protesters arrived with bullhorns and led chants against a loose formation of police officers that stood between yellow crime scene tape and investigators a few dozen feet away.

Wearing orange vests, about 10 members of the Focused Interruption Coalition arrived hoping to “bridge the gap between the police and the community and just make sure that everybody stays violence free,” said Leslie Jamison. “We’re going to work to deescalate and make sure nobody gets incarcerated today.”

Several speakers in the crowd urged protesters to focus their energy on the Aug. 4 meeting of the Madison city council, where amendments to the ordinance that governs the Police Civilian Oversight Board and the Office of the Independent Monitor will be discussed.

They argued that the measure would restrict the PCOB and OIM at a moment when their independence and access to police information allows them to investigate shootings just like the one on Wednesday.

“One amendment in particular takes away our unfettered access to police information and data and clearly that would impede any independent investigation that would happen in this case,” said Maia Pearson, a member of the PCOB as well as the Madison school board. “That’s going to be a very pivotal time for the Police Civilian Oversight Board here in Madison, as well as the Office of the Independent Monitor.”

Statements began rolling in Wednesday afternoon. “Another Black man is dead on a Madison street, and our community watched him die before we even knew his name,” Urban Triage founder Brandi Grayson said in an emailed statement. “That is the cruelty of state violence. It takes a person’s life, strips away his humanity, and turns his final moments into a video before his family has the dignity of grieving him as a whole human being.”

“Straight up, these videos are very difficult to watch. They are both disturbing and painful. I've received several calls from alders with questions and what I can say without a doubt is that I expect a full, comprehensive, and transparent independent investigation into today's shooting of a community member,” said city council President Sabrina Madison.

“Today, our community is once again confronting the profound consequences that follow when a life is lost in an encounter with law enforcement,” Dane County Executive Melissa Agard said.

By 8 p.m. Wednesday night, most of the crowd that had gathered for Concerts on the Square had already left for home. Some of the protesters still there swiped blue cowbells branded with the orchestra’s logo. They marched back down East Washington Avenue, where the clang of cowbells could be heard along with chants of “no justice no peace” and honking horns.

[Editor's note: This article has been updated to correctly identify the shooting victim's age.]