3 teens are charged in the Third Ward shooting on the same day the injured police officer is released from the hospital
As charges were filed against three teens in the botched carjacking that resulted in the shooting of an off-duty Milwaukee police detective Thursday, the injured officer walked out of the hospital.
Andrew Wilkiewicz, a 37-year-old with seven years of experience, emerged from Froedtert Hospital with several dozen police personnel, friends and family waiting to shower him in applause.
In brief remarks, he thanked those who aided him after being shot multiple times while intervening in the carjacking and summed up his heroic actions as a standard part of his job.
The charges filed Tuesday include attempted first-degree intentional homicide against the alleged shooter, Keasean J. Ellis-Brown, 18, of Milwaukee, who is not in police custody.
He and two others — Timonte L. Karroll-Robinson, 17, and Dionta'e L. Hayes, 18, both of Milwaukee — each face five felonies and a misdemeanor charge in connection with the shooting and the car chase that ensued.
Karroll-Robinson and Hayes are in Milwaukee County jail and were arrested after the car chase ended on Milwaukee’s north side.
The complaint details how the unidentified detective intervened while Ellis-Brown allegedly grabbed a food delivery driver and tried bringing her to the ground following the failed carjacking. After wrestling with the suspect inside of a Third Ward restaurant, the off-duty detective was shot multiple times, with one wound narrowly missing his heart.
Milwaukee Police Chief Jeffrey Norman said Tuesday it's unknown how long it will be until Wilkiewicz returns to active duty.
"It reminds you that life is fragile and we need to understand that every day is a blessing," he said.
According to the criminal complaint:
Shortly after 2 p.m. Thursday, a delivery driver with Door Dash arrived outside Shake Shack, 220 E. Buffalo St., in the Third Ward.
The driver had her three children in the car and she went inside the restaurant to ask if one of them could use the restroom. While doing so, people inside the restaurant told her it appeared someone was trying to steal her car.
Witnesses said someone quickly jumped in and out of the car. One of the driver’s children later said that a man got into the driver’s seat before realizing children were in the back. He then got out of the car but dropped his phone in the process.
The driver found the phone and brought it inside the restaurant with the intention of calling the police. The phone she found rang repeatedly, and at one point a male approached her and demanded it back.
He then grabbed her in a bear hug, pushed her into a wall and tried to slam her to the ground. The off-duty detective then identified himself as police and wrestled the suspect to the ground.
Witnesses saw the suspect reach for his waistband before hearing two gunshots, followed by a pause and three more shots.
As the officer laid on the ground bleeding from four gunshot wounds to his abdomen, groin and back, he recited the license plate number of the vehicle the suspect fled in.
A passerby outside the restaurant happened to be a nurse and joined two other civilians in providing aid to the detective.
The detective was able to provide a detailed description of the fleeing vehicle and the suspect to responding officers, who broadcast them citywide. The vehicle was reported stolen from Menomonee Falls three days earlier.
It was later seen by another off-duty officer in the area of West Lisbon Avenue and North Sherman Boulevard on Milwaukee’s west side. A traffic stop was attempted near West State and North 17th streets, but the suspect vehicle fled, exceeding 100 mph and ignoring more than 15 stop signs and red lights.
Pursuing officers eventually lost sight of the vehicle, but an investigator with the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office radioed that he saw two suspects running on the 2800 block of West Chambers Street.
Hayes and Karroll-Robinson were then taken into custody shortly after. Karroll-Robinson was found carrying a box of gun ammunition, while the car was found with three spent casings, a scale and quantities of marijuana inside.
The two told police they had been driving around that afternoon when Ellis-Brown requested they go to the Third Ward area. Once there, Ellis-Brown asked Karroll-Robinson, the driver, to stop the car near the Shake Shack.
After jumping in and out of the delivery driver’s car, Ellis-Brown returned to Karroll-Robinson’s vehicle and noticed he left his phone behind, so he went back for it.
Karroll-Robinson and Hayes told police that Ellis-Brown took too long after going inside the Shake Shack, so they drove around the block and heard gunshots in the process. When Ellis-Brown got back in the car, he said he “tussled” with a cop but didn’t say anything about shooting him, Karroll-Robinson and Hayes said.
Before getting involved in a car chase with police, they dropped Ellis-Brown off at his home. Surveillance footage from inside the home showed him leaving the home shortly afterwards after changing clothes. He was accompanied with another person carrying bags with various items and shoes inside.
Ellis-Brow and Hayes were out on bail in other felony cases at the time of the incident, according to court records.
Ellis-Brown had been charged with fleeing, recklessly endangering safety and resisting an officer in October. He posted bail soon after Commissioner Grace Flynn set it at $1,000.
Hayes was free on a $500 signature bond after being charged with operating a vehicle without consent and resisting an officer – a felony because the officer was injured in the process.
The $500 signature bond was also set by Flynn. A signature bond is a promise to appear for court proceedings, usually with a monetary penalty if an individual fails to show up – in Hayes’ case, $500.
Delivery driver receives community support
As of Tuesday evening, a GoFundMe page set up for the delivery driver has raised more than $18,000 for her and her children, exceeding a goal of $15,000.
The driver, whose identity is withheld from the page out of safety concerns, wrote that working as a delivery driver is her primary job and she’s forced to take along her kids because she cannot afford daycare services.
She wrote that she is scared to return to delivering foods after last week’s incident.
“We are all terribly traumatized by this situation and would appreciate any help received,” she wrote.
Contact Elliot Hughes at elliot.hughes@jrn.com or 414-704-8958. Follow him on Twitter @elliothughes12.
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: 3 charged in Third Ward shooting that injured Milwaukee detective
