MILWAUKEE, Wis. — In July, Chloe Handrich and Samantha Zganjar were hit by a woman, on Water Street in downtown Milwaukee, who drove through police barricades and severely injured them both.
The driver was cited for failing to yield and driving without insurance and registration. We are not naming the driver because she was not criminally charged.
Since the crash, the victims and their families have been trying to get answers from Milwaukee Police and so has TMJ4 News.
The Handrich's and Zganjar's call the police and city's response a "failure."
Last week, through an open records request, Milwaukee Police released body camera video from first responding officers. TMJ4 reporter Jenna Rae watched that video with Handrich and Zganjar.
"Seeing all the footage was really difficult," Handrich said.
"I'm just like hurt, confused, devastated, feel like our lives did not matter in that moment," Zganjar added. "I still just don't understand when the police and whoever say this didn't rise to the level of a crime."
Watch: TMJ4 responds to MPD's accusation of inaccurate reporting, as victims continue pushing for answers
WATCHING THE BODY CAMERA
Body camera video shows an officer question the driver after the crash.
"You haven't dranken anything tonight," he asks.
"I had a beer," the driver responded.
"How long ago was that," the officer asks.
"Um, a couple hours ago. I had a beer and a shot," the driver responded.
Video then shows two officers discussing their interaction with the driver.
"I swore I smelled alcohol on her. We're going to have to do sobriety, SFSTs anyway," the officer said.
SFST stands for Standardized Field Sobriety Test.
According to MPD's Standard Operating Procedure, SFSTs are "a battery of three tests developed by the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration (NHTSA)...to obtain validated indicators of impairment and establish probable cause for arrest."
An OWI Investigator who is certified to perform SFSTs arrives on scene, and video shows them asking the driver some questions.
"Walk me through what happened real quick. I wanna make sure I get this right," the investigator said.
"Well, the light was green, cause like I said, sometimes they have it barricaded, sometimes they don't, so I'm proceeding through, and then I see there's a barricade. I hit my brakes, but the ladies were walking across, and I feel like I hit the barricades and the barricades hit them," the driver said.
The investigator later asks, "You weren't drinking?"
"Earlier, I told him [another officer] I had a Corona and a shot, tequila," the driver responded.
"I know this is a weird question, I just gotta ask, did you smoke anything? Take anything," the investigator asked.
"Do I smoke anything? Uh, I smoke cigarettes time to time," the driver answered.
The investigator does not perform a Standardized Field Sobriety Test, which, according to NHTSA, includes the horizontal gaze nystagmus, one-leg stand, and walk and turn tests.
In MPD's crash report, officers said neither they nor the OWI expert "observed any signs of impairment in the driver's speech or actions."
"It fills me with disappointment in the police because we trust them to do their jobs and to seek justice in these situations, and I think that all of the clues to do a standardized field sobriety test, to do a breathalyzer, they were all there," Handrich explained after watching the body camera video.
WISCONSIN'S TOP OWI EXPERT
Rae took Handrich and Zganjar's concerns and questions to the state's top Operating While Intoxicated (OWI) expert, Steve Krejci.
"The courts have ruled that the odor of an alcoholic beverage, by itself, is not enough reasonable suspicion to justify issuing the field sobriety test," Krejci said.
Krejci spent two decades on MPD's Traffic Enforcement Unit. He's now the coordinator for Wisconsin's Impaired Driving Program, which every law enforcement official in the state has to complete.
Krejci also watched all four and a half hours of body camera video.
"You have the admission, but yeah, if you consumed alcohol and you had that odor, the admission doesn't really add any reasonable suspicion to it. I would look at things like the bloodshot eyes, the droopy eyelids, the flaccid muscle tones, the speech patterns, and all of those things, as additional factors to look at," Krejci explained.
"Which you saw none of that in the body camera?" Rae asked.
"No. The speech was fine, the eyes were fine, the muscle tone is fine, the coordination is fine, the balance is fine. He [OWI investigator] probably determined there's no reasonable suspicion to even move forward with the field sobriety tests, which again, I think is the correct decision," Krejci answered.
Wisconsin State Statute allows officers to take a blood sample from suspected OWI drivers without probable cause if substantial bodily harm occurs or if a traffic law was violated.
"Why not just take the blood in that case?" Rae asked Krejci.
"Well, like I said, it's up to each agency in the state to determine whether or not they will utilize that law to their advantage. Could they have done more? Sure. But were they required to do more? I don't think that they were," Krejci said.
TMJ4'S ATTEMPTS TO TALK WITH MILWAUKEE POLICE
Since July, Rae has requested several interviews with MPD to try and get Handrich and Zganjar's questions answered.
MPD has said "we are not accommodating an interview" and "I have provided all the information that is available at this time."
We followed up in an email asking if police conducted a field sobriety test for the driver. The next day, an MPD spokesperson responded, not with an answer to the question, but by writing, "no signs of impairment were observed."
By August 12, the investigation was closed, according to an email from MPD. So, Rae took Handrich and Zganjar's questions to Milwaukee Police Chief Jeffrey Norman while on a panel for the Milwaukee Press Club.
"Based on the facts of the case, that the investigation revealed, this was the outcome for the certain citations issued," Norman said.
When Rae pressed again, asking questions regarding the police's contact with the victims, MPD CAD Call reports, and 911 logs, the chief responded by saying, "I did not know that this was going to be the focus of your questioning today, would've appreciated more of a heads up on that."
"We will get back to you about that and see what we can answer for you because I don't talk things off the cuff; I like to get a more thorough review. I just wish we had better use of this time than focusing on one incident," Norman added.
After the panel, Rae asked if the chief had seen the surveillance video of the crash and if she could ask some additional questions about it. The chief's communications team said he hadn't seen the video, and he would not be answering more questions.
Last week, after MPD released its own body camera video to TMJ4, through an open records request, and TMJ4 News reported what's seen and heard on MPD's body camera video, MPD put out this press release:
Press Release October 8, 2025 - MPD Statement on Recent TMJ4 News Story by TMJ4 News
MPD claims Rae never reached out to them and that her report contained "several inaccuracies and misleading conclusions regarding the investigation, particularly in relation to the OWI procedures."
When TMJ4 followed up with MPD about that statement, a spokesperson pointed to one part of the story where the OWI investigator questions the driver about what she's had to drink. MPD said those questions are considered a phase of field sobriety testing.
We've since clarified our reporting to explain that the OWI investigator did not perform a Standardized Field Sobriety Test, which would have included tests like the one-leg stand and the walk and turn.
MPD also claimed Rae's report "contributed to the continued trauma experienced by those affected by this tragic event."
According to Handrich and Zganjar, no city official nor anyone from MPD ever contacted them, as victims in this crash, during or after the investigation.
"You're [Rae] the very last person I'd ever say caused any additional trauma to anything, and the response of the mayor, the police department, that has caused me exponential amount of trauma of feeling like I don't matter, and that is such a failure on all their parts," Handrich explained.
Rae reached out to MPD on October 13, asking for an interview, and then again on October 14. She was told in an emailed response, "we are not accommodating an interview at this time." The email included a link to the department's standard operating procedure for OWI enforcement.
Our request for an interview with anyone in MPD who can answer questions regarding this investigation still stands.
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