A student athlete is still in custody after striking two Department of Public Safety officers Saturday and will face District Attorney charges Wednesday, Milwaukee Police Department Lt. Mark Stanmeyer said.

Capt. Russell Shaw, assistant director of DPS, said that a DPS officer saw three students in a verbal altercation and, after approaching them, called for further assistance because she was by herself.

Shaw said one of the individuals was acting “very erratic” and while the officers were trying to speak to the subject, he ended up striking one DPS officer in the face. Multiple MPD squad cars arrived at the scene, in addition to fire trucks and an ambulance. The officers received medical attention on the scene and were released from the hospital the next morning.

“The subject was taken into custody for substantial battery,” Shaw said. “The suspect has not yet been charged.”

A student involved in the incident, who chose to remain anonymous, told the Tribune immediately after the incident that the student athlete who struck the DPS officers was under the influence of an unidentified illegal substance.

“(This assault is) obviously something of some seriousness because in most cases (MPD) would just give someone a battery citation, and they’d be on their way, but MPD looked at it as substantial battery, and that’s a more serious offense,” Shaw said.

A substantial battery charge carries a penalty of up to a $50,000 and up to 15 years in prison.

Shaw said the procedure for dealing with the assault of a DPS officer is the same as the procedure of dealing with a battery of a student.

“If anyone else got battered, we can’t treat it any differently,” Shaw said. “It comes down to the arresting agency, MPD, and what they are going to arrest someone for.”

Shaw said that whatever the District Attorney decides to do in the criminal case has nothing to do with what Student Affairs decides to do in handling the case.