More children injured in gunfire prompts extended police presence in hot spot neighborhoods

MILWAUKEE (WITI) -- Friday, July 25th in the area of 36th and Hadley there is lots of police activity. Tonight we learn more about a couple, now in jail, after a shooting in which two children were injured.

It's a common site Friday. Milwaukee Police are targeting the area near 36th and Hadley, calling it a hot spot for violence. Police say so far, their efforts paid off, arresting a 23-year-old man wanted for questioning in a homicide case. Police say in the man's vehicle, two young children, a gun, ammunition, and drugs.

But it's what happened Wednesday night before that prompted extra patrols. Two children were shot in a van with seven kids total inside of the vehicle. A 30-year-old man and the children's mother, who were both in the van, are arrested, and police look for others.

"For the next four days we're doing to have an extended police presence in these neighborhoods," says Milwaukee Mayor, Tom Barrett. "If it takes four weeks they'll be here four weeks, if it takes four months they'll be here four months."

Police say their investigation let them to a house not far away where the mother was living with her seven children. Police say city workers discovered rats, cockroaches, and feces throughout. The house was condemned, and the children were placed with child protective services.

"I don't know nothing about no cockroaches, about no bed bugs. Like I said, social services come every week. Two people come every week. Social worker and a worrier, if there was something wrong with that house and it need to be condemned why would social services not take the kids yet," says Kiana Jackson, neighbor.

FOX6 has learned the family was on the radar of social workers by court order. In 2012 the mother was charged with three counts of child abuse, accused of beating her children with an electrical cord. The neighbor never saw anything concerning.

"They were going to the store and they walked in a line, it was so beautiful we called them the Brady bunch," says Jackson.