MILWAUKEE — The death of a Milwaukee alderman and former state representative has shaken the community he served.
Jonathan Brostoff was found dead in Greenfield Park last Monday. Police say the 41-year-old father of four died by suicide.
Just days after his funeral, the Brady Street neighborhood came together to honor him Monday night.
It was a full house at Roman Coin on Milwaukee’s eastside.
Community members and business owners along Brady Street and beyond gathered to share memories of Alderman Jonathan Brostoff, and share in the immense grief that he’s gone.
“He was a very, very kind man and as said, he was someone who truly cared about community, which is very rare,” remarked one community member.
So many here wishing they could have helped him, knowing how much he advocated for everyone else and always stood up for what he believed in.
Milwaukee County Supervisor Sheldon Wasserman worked closely with Brostoff.
“He’d look at me sometimes and go, ‘I’ll be the bad cop, you be the good cop, I’ll be the bad cop.’ I go, ‘Jonathan, how you are doing this?’ He goes, ‘when you believe in something, you fight for it!’”
Dozens of people shared stories. They want to make sure his legacy lives on for the city and his children.
“He just wanted to get to know you and talk to you about your ideas and what your concerns were,” said Alex Motl, a friend of Brostoff’s.
“As supervisor Wasserman just said, he was always taking the big things, and I think my favorite phrase that I’ll remember with him is, ‘you got to risk it for the brisket man.’”
Nas Musa, the co-owner of Casablanca on Brady, remembers how Brostoff was one of the first people to help after his restaurant was broken into.
“And he came the next day, him and Senator Larson came and helped me clean. They swept the glass, they comforted me, because you know, that was tragic for me, to get your business broken in to. And I’ll never forget that day,” said Musa.
Brostoff was dedicated to building safe, walkable and thriving neighborhoods.
So it was only fitting that friends, family and fellow leaders walked together with candles, down one of the city’s most iconic streets, in the neighborhood Brostoff represented on Monday evening.