Residents react after a teenager is shot and killed at a bus stop near 53rd and Center streets in Milwaukee
Editor's note: This story was updated Saturday to include the name of the victim.
A 15-year-old Milwaukee boy was shot and killed while standing at the bus stop Thursday afternoon on Center Street, in what continues a troubling trend of youth homicides.
The medical examiner's office identified the teen as Keyshon Harris.
Harris was shot about 3:30 p.m. at the intersection of North 53rd and West Center streets and was pronounced dead at the scene, Milwaukee police said.
No suspects are in custody and the circumstances that led to the shooting are under investigation, police said.
Video from a surveillance camera that was shared to social media captures the homicide. It shows a male running across Center Street, holding a handgun and firing several shots at the boy at close range.
Harris is at least the 15th child to die by homicide in Milwaukee this year.
On Friday morning, a 16-year-old was killed in what police say was a robbery-related shooting in he 8700 block of West Silver Spring Drive.
The Thursday shooting occurred about half-block from Saint Catherine's Catholic Elementary School, where children could be seen playing in the aftermath of the shooting.
"You got kids playing and gunshots going off. That's crazy," said Kenneth Hunter, 63, a nearby resident.
Hunter said gunshots are common in the area. It seems that younger people more and more are the ones pulling the trigger and getting hit by the bullet, he said.
"Somebody's got to try talking to these kids because they don't get it," he said. "Now if you live past 13 years old, you're considered old school because you made it. They killing babies like it ain't nothing."
Rob "Biko" Baker, an assistant visiting professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, was passing out flyers in the surrounding neighborhood when he came across the crime scene.
"There's a lot of murders that have taken place on this street," he said. "I heard it was a young person. I've seen young people walking away angry. Hopefully, somebody helps them with their trauma."
Baker said he's affiliated with Black Men Build, a social and political organization with hubs around the country, including in Milwaukee. The group advocates for Black men "to be critical free thinkers, to speak truth, to teach other, and to build social, economic, political, and spiritual tools needed to evolve and power Black futures," its website says.
Baker was passing out flyers that were critical of Mayor Cavalier Johnson and Office of Violence Prevention Director Ashanti Hamilton. The flyer, which has crime statistics printed on it, encourages residents to call the officials' offices.
From 2016 to 2019, no more than 10 children died by homicide in Milwaukee, but 20 or more have been killed in each of the three years since, according to police and the city's Homicide Review Commission.
Last year, Milwaukee had 27 juvenile homicide victims, according to police.
Nationally, in 2020, firearm-related injuries surpassed motor vehicle crashes as the leading cause of death for young people, defined as those 1 to 19 years old, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Sophie Carson of the Journal Sentinel contributed to this report.
Drake Bentley can be reached at DBentley1@gannett.com.
Our subscribers make this reporting possible. Please consider supporting local journalism by subscribing to the Journal Sentinel at jsonline.com/deal.
DOWNLOAD THE APP: Get the latest news, sports and more
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: 15-year-old boy shot and killed at bus stop on Milwaukee's north side
