Man, 24, is arrested in road rage shooting. Milwaukee family still struggles without the devoted father
Romonia Butler-Foster can stop wondering now.
It’s been eight months since her brother Ronald Butler was murdered in front of his four children in an apparent road rage incident in the 8900 Block of West Mill Road. For those eight months, his sister wondered who fatally shot her brother.
“It’s weird because you walk around the streets, and you wonder, ‘Is that him.’ You pull up alongside people and you wonder, ‘Is that him,’” said Butler-Foster, of Milwaukee. “I am very happy that the person that pulled the trigger is behind bars.”
Milwaukee Police arrested Demetreon T. Caston-Townsend, 24, Friday in the July 2022 shooting.
The Milwaukee County District Attorney's Office charged Caston-Townsend with first-degree reckless homicide and use of a dangerous weapon. Bail was set at $275,000. A preliminary hearing is set for March 29.
The arrest and charges bring some relief to Butler’s extensive family.
More:Road rage shootings are increasing. There were more than 500 last year, report finds.
“I feel like our family is going to get some closure, but our family is not going to get any peace,” Butler-Foster said. “There is nothing that anybody in this world can do that’s going to bring us peace because can’t nobody bring him back.”
Ronald Butler was fatally shot on July 19 when someone opened fire on his van at Mill and 89th Street, on the city’s northwest side. Butler, who turned 50 in June, was driving with four of his children -- ages 2, 9, and 10-year-old twins -- when the shooting occurred.
According to a criminal complaint, a Chevy Equinox ran the red light and almost collided with Butler's van; one of Butler's twin sons noted in the document the vehicle sped past and almost him them.
The son said their dad yelled at the car to stop speeding because there are kids in the car. That’s when the son said he heard a “pew” sound, then saw his dad was hurt and slumped over, the complaint said. The van came to a stop after hitting a light pole. Milwaukee police and fire responded, but Butler was pronounced dead at the scene.
The shooting occurred as the family was getting ready to celebrate a nephew’s birthday. Ronald Butler had just left Walmart to get party favors for his nephew’s first birthday party. The party never took place, Butler-Foster said.
More:Shots fired on I-94, drivers engaging in 'road rage behavior,' Milwaukee sheriff's office says
“It’s getting ready to come up again and it is always gonna be a taint, a mark on his birthday because that is the day that his uncle and our only brother died,” she said.
Incidents of road rage shootings have been on the rise. In 2020, there were 52 such incidents, of which seven were fatal. Forty-seven such incidents in 2021 resulted in three fatalities, and in 2022, Butler was among five fatalities out of 42 reported cases of road rage, according to police data.
As of March, the police reported four incidents of road rage, none of them fatal.
Butler-Foster acknowledges these incidents are on the rise, and said everyone should realize how this hurts families.
“I wish that they would take one minute and think about what they are doing,” she said. “They could be sitting in my spot right now.
"Somebody could have taken somebody that they loved from road rage. The world doesn’t think like that. What if this was your family? Would you want them to go through this? You wouldn’t; so why put somebody else through it.”
More:A man was shot during a road rage incident on Milwaukee's north side
According to the criminal complaint, at least two other people were in the car with Caston-Townsend, but only he has been charged.
Butler-Foster said her family has gone through a lot in these last eight months, but they want their day in court.
“When this comes to trial, I hope that he gets all the law can give and then some,” Butler-Foster said. “We miss him tremendously.”
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Police arrest man in fatal road rage shooting on Milwaukee's northside
