Milwaukee Juneteenth shooting: Six teens shot just after city's holiday celebration

MILWAUKEE − Six teenagers, including four minors, were shot and wounded Monday afternoon near where Milwaukee's Juneteenth celebration had just wrapped up, according to the Milwaukee Police Department.

The shooting happened around 4:20 p.m. directly outside Greater Philadelphia Church of God in Christ, according to witnesses and a Facebook Live video taken by a bystander in the immediate aftermath of the shooting.

Police said the victims were four girls who are ages 14, 16, 17 and 18, and two boys who are 17 and 19. They were taken to a hospital for treatment of non-fatal injuries.

Milwaukee police said their preliminary investigation revealed the shooting may have stemmed from a fight between multiple girls when suspects fired several shots.

It appears that the 17-year-old boy, who was injured, was a shooter in the incident, Milwaukee Police Chief Jeffrey Norman said at a news conference outside of MPD District 5 Monday night. The boy is in custody, Norman said. Police are seeking additional unknown suspects.

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Authorities say shooting occurred after Juneteenth festivities had finished

Thousands of people packed N. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive for the festival, which ran 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Vendors selling food and wares lined the street along with community organizations offering resources, snacks and free giveaways.

Music thumped from booths and food trucks offering refreshing treats in the heat drew long lines. Many families with children and older adults were in attendance, and police officers were stationed in several places along the route. Youth dance groups, marching bands and drill teams entertained crowds in a parade along King Drive earlier in the day.

"Today was a glorious day," Mayor Cavalier Johnson said. "We celebrated Juneteenth. And I think it's important to point out the fact that this incident did not happen during Juneteenth. ... This happened after Juneteenth had concluded. But still, it is totally, it is totally, totally unacceptable for the incident that happened right in this neighborhood, right in this community."

The holiday, which takes place on June 19 each year, commemorates the day in 1865 when Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, with news that the war had ended and that the enslaved were now free. It was two years after President Abraham Lincoln had signed the Emancipation Proclamation.

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Juneteenth is the nation’s oldest commemoration of the end of slavery in the United States, and the Milwaukee celebration is one of the oldest in the country. It began in 1971.

"We had thousands and thousands and thousands of people here celebrating and bringing themselves together, and having a sense of community," Johnson said. "That's a powerful thing. That's the true story about what this day is."

Witness account from the scene

Toni Hector, a vendor, said the shooting happened in front of her. She said it started as a fight between two females.

“I do this event every year and bring my clothes down. It has never been this bad,” Hector said.

A Facebook Live video taken in the immediate aftermath of the shooting shows at least two young people with gunshot wounds being treated by paramedics on the pavement.

The person who filmed the Facebook Live said in the video that a teenage girl or young woman had suffered a gunshot wound to the neck. The Facebook user tried to comfort the teen's sobbing friend, who was trying to contact her mother. Only about 20 minutes after the festival had officially ended, hundreds of people were still walking along the street.

Milwaukee activist Vaun Mayes was at Rose Park when shots rang out. He said his team, ComForce MKE, which engages in violence interruption, specifically targeted the area surrounding the park because of a shooting and fights last year following the Juneteenth celebration.

Last year, Mayes witnessed a woman being shot shortly after festivities and recorded the incident on Facebook Live.

Mayes said he is “incensed” that there would be violence on the Juneteenth holiday after last year’s incidents.

Prior to the shots ringing out on Monday, “we had been breaking up fights for maybe an hour, an hour and a half,” Mayes said. People started running toward a formation of police officers and that is when Mayes noticed multiple people had been hit. “I thought maybe it was one person and then just another person after another person,” he said.

'Arguments should not lead to guns being fired off'

Norman said it will take a village to fix the violence problem.

"Milwaukee, what's going on with our children?" Norman said. "Parents, guardians, elders, we need to engage and ensure that this violence that our children are bringing to these streets cease. No handgun, no weapon of destruction should be in the hands of our young ones. It's important that all of us do something."

"This is not a Milwaukee Police Department thing. Not the mayor's thing. Not just only community organizers," Norman said. "It's a 'us' thing. ... We need you, all of you to be part of this effort to make our city safer."

Johnson said at a news conference that guns shouldn't be used as part of fights.

"Arguments should not lead to guns being fired off, period," Johnson said. "It used to be a time where if folks had an argument, you'd just walk away. Or you conclude the argument and leave it at that. Or maybe worse, you get into a fistfight. You don't pull out a gun and try to end somebody's life over something as simple and as meaningless as a petty disagreement, as an argument. We see enough of that, too much of that, and it needs to stop."

The investigation into the shooting is ongoing. Anyone with information on the incident is asked to contact Milwaukee Police Department at 414-935-7360, or to remain anonymous, contact Crime Stoppers at 414-224-TIPS.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee Juneteenth shooting: 6 teens shot just after celebration