Milwaukee police officer injured during chase; Kamarion Cross sentenced

MILWAUKEE - A Milwaukee County judge sentenced Kamarion Cross on Friday, April 4 to five years in prison plus an additional three years of extended supervision and four years probation. This, in connection with a Milwaukee police chase that left an officer injured and shut down a stretch of I-94 in March 2024.

Cross pleaded guilty in January to charges of armed robbery and first-degree recklessly endangering safety in his case. A third count of attempted armed robbery was dismissed and read into the court record for the purposes of sentencing.

Case details

What we know:

Armed carjacking, shooting

A string of crimes started on the morning of March 29, 2024. A red Honda followed a victim into a downtown parking garage, according to a criminal complaint, and two people threatened to shoot the victim before taking his car and wallet. Surveillance showed the vehicles and people involved. 

Officers found the stolen car, a gray Audi, a few hours later. The complaint states it was involved in a pursuit before it was recovered. The suspects in that chase got away, but law enforcement identified the driver as a juvenile, and the front passenger as Kamarion Cross. Surveillance video showed the juvenile with two guns and Cross with another.

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Around 6 a.m. on March 30, 2024, police were called to a hospital on Milwaukee's north side. The complaint states a victim was shot during an attempted robbery near Hopkins and Villard. Surveillance video from the shooting scene showed the suspects – the juvenile driver and Cross, the passenger – arriving in the same red Honda involved in the downtown carjacking.

Video from the gas station where it happened showed Cross talking to the victim before grabbing designer glasses off the victim's face and shooting at the victim, per the complaint. Cross then dropped the glasses and took off, per the complaint. Footage from outside the gas station showed the juvenile was the driver of the red Honda, and Cross was the passenger.

Police chase, officer injured

Police said the pursuit started near 107th and Good Hope when officers spotted and tried to stop the red Honda. 

The criminal complaint states the chase started around 4:05 p.m. on March 30, 2024. It lasted more than 30 minutes and stretched more than 40 miles with top speeds in excess of 100 mph. As the chase made its way to the area of 37th and Park Hill, an officer was deploying stop sticks on the nearby I-94 westbound on-ramp. The fleeing driver drove over a median, and the officer moved out of the way of the fleeing car – but into the path of a pursuing squad which then struck the officer.

A Wisconsin Department of Transportation camera captured the red car speeding, driving off the road onto the interstate, as squads followed. The officer can be seen holding stop sticks on the ramp. That officer was identified as a 30-year-old man with more than 11 years of service. He was taken to a hospital with serious but non-fatal injuries.

As police searched for the red Honda and the suspects after that pursuit, the complaint states they got an anonymous tip early on March 31, 2024, that the car was parked near 28th and Kilbourn.

The complaint states surveillance video showed the red Honda and two other vehicles – a black Infiniti and a white BMW – and multiple people in the area of 28th and Kilbourn around 4:36 p.m. on March 30. Prosecutors said, while they were not all seen on video, there was "enough time for the occupants of the red Honda to enter the BMW."

Latent fingerprints were pulled from the red Honda. According to the complaint, the juvenile's prints were found on the driver's door, and Cross' prints were found on the passenger side of the car's hood. Court filings identified the juvenile and Cross as "suspects in the above three incidents" – those being the carjacking, shooting and police chase that ended when the officer was struck.

Six others charged

On April 1, 2024, as the investigation continued, an undercover officer spotted the black Infiniti and white BMW in the area of 27th and Clybourn. The black Infiniti took off when officers pulled up behind it with their lights and sirens on, according to the complaint. Prosecutors said the driver was Billy Cannon, who looked directly at officers before getting into the driver's seat and speeding off.

That pursuit stretched more than 19 miles and ended near Teutonia and Hampton when the car got a flat tire. It reached speeds of 100 mph, and the complaint states Cannon ran multiple red lights, evaded PIT maneuvers and nearly struck an officer who tried to deploy stop sticks. Four people got out and ran, prosecutors said: Cannon, Jacary Brewer, Omayrilis Vazquez and a juvenile.

According to the complaint, a search of the black Infiniti uncovered cocaine, suspected marijuana, a digital scale and a gun.

Once in custody, the complaint states Cannon told investigators that Charlie Body called him on March 30, 2024, to "help with an emergency." He confirmed the two of them picked up the occupants of the red Honda after the high-speed chase that ended when the officer was struck.

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On April 2, 2024, police found a Chrysler they knew was associated with Charlie Body. The complaint states undercover officers followed the car for around an hour and saw it make stops throughout the city and conduct multiple suspected hand-to-hand drug transactions. Officers stopped the car with Charlie Body, Charles Body and Montrel Ramsey inside. 

According to the complaint, a search of the car found cocaine, fentanyl, methamphetamine and psilocybin. There was more than $13,000 cash and a total of 98 grams of cocaine/fentanyl and 30.8 grams of methamphetamine. Suspected marijuana was on the floor in plain view.

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