96th and Brown Deer homicide: Milwaukee man charged, on the run

Roger Powell

A 44-year-old Milwaukee man is on the run, charged in the fatal shooting of a 24-year-old man near 96th and Brown Deer Road last month. The accused is Roger Powell. Powell faces the following criminal counts:

  • First-degree intentional homicide
  • Possession of a firearm by a felon

According to the criminal complaint, Milwaukee police were dispatched to the area near 96th and Brown Deer Road on Thursday evening, March 17 for a shooting complaint. Officers arrived on the scene -- and located a 24-year-old man deceased in the driver's seat of a car. The victim was later identified by the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner's Office as Stefan Owens. Officials say Owens died as a result of multiple gunshot wounds.

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Milwaukee police reviewed surveillance video from Risen Savior Church and School near the shooting scene. The complaint says the video shows a dark-colored car pulled up next to Owens' car. Detectives stated in the video you can "hear yelling, as if the two cars are communicating." Moments later, the complaint says "the defendant exits the passenger seat of the dark-colored car and walks around the rear of the car toward (Owens') car." It goes on to say Powell "walks up to the driver's side window of (Owens') car, raises his right hand, and fires five shots through (Owens') driver's side window." The defendant then walks back to the car he exited, and the suspect car drove off.

Homicide investigation at 96th and Brown Deer, Milwaukee

Detectives then spoke with a woman on the scene after the homicide. The woman told officers Owens was the father of her child, that they had been in a relationship for several years, and broke up last September. The woman said Owens "has been threatening her, hitting her, and damaging her property," the complaint says. The woman told police earlier that evening, she was in a car with her child when Owens pulled up next to her and told her to roll down the window. The woman did not do this and drove off. But the complaint says Owens kept following her, "so she called her brother, the defendant, Roger Powell. (The woman) said that she asked the defendant to escort her inside of her house because she was scared, but the defendant told her he wasn't nearby."

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When the woman went back toward her house, she noticed Owens' car parked at the intersection. The complaint says "she saw the car was stopped and couldn't see (Owens), so she drove up to his car and saw him slumped over and bleeding." She called 911 and "said that the defendant may have shot (Owens) but that she did not witness the shooting."

While Powell was charged on April 7, online records indicate he is not in police custody. A warrant for his arrest has been issued.

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