Wallets, cellphones stolen across Milwaukee County; man accused
MILWAUKEE - A West Allis man is accused of robbing someone at gunpoint and stealing multiple cellphones over the course of less than a month.
Prosecutors charged 23-year-old Shamar Moore with three felonies and three misdemeanors in the case. According to court filings, he was caught on camera more than once.
SIGN UP TODAY: Get daily headlines, breaking news emails from FOX6 News
Nov. 24: South Milwaukee armed robbery
A victim got off a bus and went into a grocery store near Chicago and Blake, a criminal complaint states. When the victim left the store around 6:10 p.m., he said he noticed someone was following him.
Prosecutors said the suspect – later identified as Moore – pushed the victim down on Columbia Avenue and told him to hand over his phone and wallet. When the victim refused and started to fight back, he said the suspect pulled out a gun and said: "Don't hit me, or I will shoot you."
MCTS surveillance image of robbery suspect (Courtesy: MCDAO)
The victim then handed over his wallet and phone, per the complaint, and the suspect also took a gold cross necklace before he ran off. The wallet had $915 cash inside, as well as a debit card, insurance card and the victim's ID.
Court filings said surveillance video from an MCTS bus showed both the victim and the suspect on board until both men got off at the same stop. Video from a nearby business showed the victim going into the grocery store and, when the victim left the store, the suspect emerged from a wooded area. The suspect then followed the victim through the parking lot, and a different camera showed the suspect continuing to follow the victim until they were both out of camera view.
Dec. 11: South Milwaukee property damage, theft
A South Milwaukee woman reported a possible break-in shortly after 1 p.m. The criminal complaint states she came home and noticed her doorbell camera had been smashed. She watched video from a different camera that showed a suspect – later identified as Moore – smash the camera.
Surveillance image of damage to doorbell camera (Courtesy: MCDAO)
Later that same day, around 4 p.m., police were called to the area of 10th and Milwaukee. Court filings said two victims said they were doing roof repairs and returned to their work van to find their backpacks, which had their wallets inside, had been stolen.
Video showed the suspect – later identified as Moore – going into the van and walking away with two backpacks. The suspect was wearing similar clothing to the person who smashed the doorbell camera.
Surveillance image of backpack theft suspect (Courtesy: MCDAO)
Dec. 14: Milwaukee theft
Milwaukee police were called to a bar on Menomonee Street in the Historic Third Ward around 2:25 p.m. Prosecutors said a victim told officers he was sitting outside with his cellphone on the table in front of him when a suspect grabbed it and ran.
The victim got up to chase the suspect – later identified as Moore – and did so for roughly a block, the complaint states, before going back to the bar and activating the tracking device on his phone.
Officers used the tracking information and began to search for the phone and suspect, ultimately spotting the suspect near 1st and Florida, where court filings said the phone had pinged. The suspect began to walk faster once he saw the officer, but the officer did not stop the suspect because he didn't think the suspect was "close enough to the ping location."
FREE DOWNLOAD: Get breaking news alerts in the FOX6 News app for iOS or Android.
Prosecutors said the officer kept following the phone's ping and went to the area of 5th and National, where he saw the same suspect again. This time, the suspect began to jog away, and the officer caught up with the suspect on Washington Street – where the suspect began to run through yards.
Updates on the phone location, per the complaint, "matched the route" that the officer saw the suspect running. Eventually, the officer caught up to and spoke to the suspect, who identified himself as Moore and took four phones out of his pockets – including the one stolen on Menomonee Street. Police also found a gun inside Moore's backpack; he did not have a concealed carry permit.
Dec. 17: Cudahy theft
According to the complaint, a victim told police he was at a laundromat near Packard and Ramsey when a suspect snatched his cellphone around 10 a.m. He said he yelled for the suspect to give it back, but the suspect ran.
The victim then got into a witness' car, prosecutors said, and the two drove around the neighborhood to look for the suspect together. Once they spotted the suspect, the victim got out and chased after the suspect on Birchwood Avenue. He kept chasing the suspect into a bank parking lot, where officers arrived.
Court filings said both the victim and witnesses identified the cellphone theft suspect at the scene, and surveillance video from the laundromat corroborated the victim's statement. Officers recognized the suspect – ultimately identified as Moore – from MCTS surveillance images related to the November armed robbery case out of South Milwaukee.
Shamar Moore (Courtesy: MCDAO)
In custody
Upon his arrest, court filings said Moore was wearing a dark blue jacket with a "distinctive tear" on the front. The tear was visible on the suspect's jacket in the MCTS video, the doorbell camera damage video and the van theft video. The MCTS video, in which the suspect was unmasked, was the same person who Cudahy police arrested nearly a month later.
In all, Moore is charged with:
- Armed robbery
- Theft of movable property (two counts)
- Misdemeanor theft of movable property
- Misdemeanor criminal damage to property
- Misdemeanor carrying a concealed weapon
Moore made his initial appearance on Dec. 22. Court records show bond was set at $10,000.