Downtown Milwaukee shooting; man charged with killing wife on her birthday
MILWAUKEE - A Milwaukee man is accused in a downtown Milwaukee shooting that left a woman dead on Saturday afternoon, May 25.
Prosecutors charged 59-year-old Timothy Lewis with first-degree reckless homicide. The Milwaukee County Medical Examiner's Office identified the victim as 60-year-old Jacqueline Beason.
The shooting happened near Cass and Kilbourn, just north of the Northwestern Mutual campus, around 12:45 p.m. that Saturday. Officers found Beason in a Toyota Corolla with a single gunshot wound, a criminal complaint states. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
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A woman, identified in the criminal complaint as Beason's daughter, told police she was on the phone with Beason just before the shooting. She said she could hear Beason and her husband, identified as Lewis, arguing the background. At one point, the woman said she heard Beason say "put that gun away" and "It's fake."
Milwaukee police say Beason was celebrating her 60th birthday on Saturday when she was shot in the head by her husband while sitting in the car.
The complaint states the woman then heard Lewis say "there you go" before the phone went silent; she did not hear a gunshot. The woman told police she called Beason back numerous times, but received no answer until someone else picked up the phone and said a man just shot the woman in the car.
A witness told police she was parking her car on Cass Street, the complaint states, when she saw a man leaning into a Toyota Corolla that was across the street from her. The man was pointing a black handgun at a woman inside the car, the witness said, and could hear the woman say she "had recordings" of how the man treated her while telling him to get away from the car.
Timothy Lewis
The witness said the man then said "OK" and she then heard one gunshot, per the complaint. The witness said the man then walked to a white Mercedes-Benz and drove off. The witness then went to the Toyota Corolla, saw the woman slumped over and called 911.
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Later that day, the complaint states officers stopped a white Mercedes-Benz; Lewis was the driver. He got out and said he had a gun, which officers recovered. During his arrest, Lewis said he was "going to jail for a long time" and "knew police were looking" for him.
Police scene near Cass and Kilbourn
"It was horrible, disturbing was what it was," said Lisa Doss, a neighbor. "But it wasn’t surprising because he’s already totally out of control."
The next day, the complaint states Lewis told investigators he had plans with Beason that day and the two got into an argument. He said he has a concealed carry permit and always has a gun on him. Lewis also told police he "got tired" of being yelled, pulled the gun out and "just lost it right there." He admitted that he shot the victim one time in the driver's seat of her car.
"She was a caring person and she took care of the house and she took care of her kids," Doss said.