Milwaukee Police Officer Bryan Norberg in Badger Guns lawsuit describes bloody shooting scene

Photo: Police Officer Bryan Norberg describes being shot with fellow Milwaukee police officer Graham Kunisch in June 2009. The handgun was sold to a straw buyer by Badger Guns, which is named in a lawsuit the two officers filed.

Milwaukee Police Officer Bryan Norberg saw a flash and felt an excruciating pain in his mouth.

The bullet ripped into his mouth, shattering eight teeth and sending shards into his tongue, and then blowing out his check and slicing into his shoulder.

"It felt like someone had ripped my teeth right out of my mouth," Norberg testified Monday about being shot with fellow Officer Graham Kunisch in June 2009. The shooter, Julius Burton, got the gun a month earlier, through a straw buyer, from Badger Guns.

Norberg said he tried to fight through the wall of pain, to get to Kunisch, who was more severely wounded, taking two shots to his head and others to the body.

"There was a lot of blood," Norberg said. "I felt like it was everywhere."

Norberg, 28, took the stand in a case he and Kunisch filed against Badger Guns, its predecessor, Badger Outdoors, and the owners, claiming negligence in the sale of the gun used to injure them. They also contend the owners of the West Milwaukee gun operation conspired to defeat a federal effort to revoke the gun-dealing license.

Norberg grew up in Bay View and said he always wanted to be a cop, "to take care of my city." On that day, he was assigned with Kunisch to patrol near Bradley Tech High School on the last day of school.

They saw Burton riding a bike on W. National Ave. and stopped him for an ordinance violation. As they approached, Burton struggled. Kunisch radioed for help and Burton pulled a gun and fired. After the shooting, Burton fled and was arrested in a nearby house, where police found the gun.

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