Fatal Washington Park shooting; city leaders raise event questions
MILWAUKEE - City leaders are trying to get to the bottom of a shooting at Washington Park that killed a teenager earlier this week.
The shooting happened near 42nd and Lloyd on Wednesday, June 19, about a half hour after event organizers ended a concert early that took place on the other end of the park.
An estimated 4,000 people filled the area near the Washington Park bandshell for the free concert, billed as "This 4 The City," was to promote peace and unity following Juneteenth celebrations.
By-in-large, organizers say it did.
But it's what happened about a half hour later that had those involved fielding questions Friday, June 21, from city leaders.
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"I’m primarily interested about getting to the bottom of what happened here," said Alderman Scott Spiker.
The Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office said a 17-year-old out on bail for a felony gun possession charge started shooting a fully-automatic gun, killing 17-year-old Sherrone Thornton and hurting a 15-year-old.
"The major issue here is kids that have guns," MPD Chief of Staff Heather Hough said. "Kids have guns."
MPD said it tasked around 14 officers for the event, along with 41 Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office personnel, including three dozen uniformed and plain clothes deputies, and about a dozen event security staff.
"Even though we don't feel like the shooting was a direct result of anything we did, we do feel responsible in a sense that we set out to have a day of peace and that death goes against what we set out to do," said event organizer Vaun Mayes.
Milwaukee Washington Park fatal shooting; 1 teen dead, 1 injured
One Milwaukee teen is dead, another injured, and a third is in custody for allegedly shooting both of them at Washington Park in Milwaukee on Wednesday night, June 19.
Mayes said they dealt with a handful of fights during the concert without issue. But organizers and law enforcement say they had a hard time communicating, so they ended the event early.
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"These are two separate events, we have to keep that in mind, because I don’t want a negative view to be cast on Juneteenth Day because it’s such an important part of Milwaukee," said Alderwoman Larresa Taylor.
Now, work will begin to figure out what went wrong and how to make it right in the future.
The Office of Community Wellness & Safety Director Ashanti Hamilton, as well as Spiker, also proposed having the Medical College of Wisconsin put a study together to see how this incident can be used to prevent violence from happening in the future.