MILWAUKEE — A 14-year-old boy, who TMJ4 News is not identifying because he's a minor, has been charged with homicide after he told police he accidentally shot his 9-year-old brother near 76th and Mill.
The incident occurred back on July 24. Milwaukee Police and Fire responded to the area around 8:45 p.m. for reports of a boy who had been shot. When officers arrived on the scene, they found a 9-year-old boy who had died from a gunshot wound to the face.
According to a court records, a 43-year-old man, who is the guardian of both the 14-year-old and 9-year-old, pulled up to a liquor store around 8:45 p.m. on July 25. After he went into the liquor store, the 14-year-old told police a variety of different stories about how he found the gun and why it went off.
Initially, the 14-year-old said his brother shot himself.
"I put [the gun] by him just to make it seem like he killed his own self," the teen told police.
Police spoke to the 14-year-old who told police several stories before finally landing on one story he claims to be the truth. He said he shot his brother "on accident."
The court record says the teen and his brother were looking around their car when they found a gun in the glove compartment. The 14-year-old told several different stories to police about what happened next. Initially, he said the 9-year-old tried to take the gun from him and the gun went off or that his brother reached for the gun and it went off. Police noted, the 14-year-old admitted these stories were false before telling them it was an accident.
According to a complaint, the suspect told officers he didn't have control of the gun and "accidentally shot" his brother in the head.
"I did it on accident like y'all said," the 14-year-old said. "I pointed it at him, and I didn't have control of the gun, and then I shot him in his head."
He said he tried to help his brother after the shooting and then laid the gun by him so that it looked like he shot himself.
"I did not know what to do, like after I killed him on accident," the suspect told police, according to a complaint.
After hearing the story, the complaint states officers asked the teen if he feels like he should be punished and if so, for how long. The complaint says the suspect said he should be punished for five days.
"I feel like I did wrong, but like I don't want to go there," the suspect told police, the complaint states.
As police were investigating the incident, a witness showed up and turned a gun over to police. The witness told police he had been in the area with his fiancee and children to buy cigarettes. While he was in a nearby store, he saw his cousin, the childrens' guardian, pacing around the parking lot near the witness's car, where his children and fiancee were.
He said his cousin was crying and appeared extremely upset.
When the witness left the store, he saw his cousin pacing around the car with a gun in his hands. The witness's cousin gave him the gun, which the witness then placed in a McDonald's bag and put in his car.
The fiancee, who also spoke to police, said the cousin had told her someone shot themselves. She said the cousin was "freaking out."
The witness left the scene to drop his fiancee off at home and then brought the gun back to the scene, where he spoke to officers.
The 43-year-old guardian was arrested at the scene according to police, but he has yet to be charged. The Milwaukee County District Attorney's Office tells TMJ4 News, "We are still reviewing potential charges against him, but it may take a bit to reach a decision there."
Milwaukee Police released a Public Service Announcement Thursday around educating kids about guns.
Chief Jeffrey Norman challenged the department and the community to come up with creative PSA's to make an impact on violence in the city. This stems from a study by the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) showing the impact a 60 second gun safety video has on keeping children safe.
According to the study, 33.9 percent of children who watched a gun safety PSA told an adult about a gun they found, compared to 10.6 percent of children who did not watch a gun safety PSA.
Additionally, 39.3 percent of kids who watched a PSA touched a gun they found versus 67.3 percent of kids who did not watch a gun safety PSA.
The MPD PSA comes at a time when fatal and non-fatal shootings of kids are on the rise.
"This is an important message, no matter when it occurs," MPD Chief of Staff, Heather Hough said. "Because this is one of those messages tht all children should be aware of and all children should know what to do when they see a firearm. But definitely timely with recent incidents in Milwaukee that are tragic and unfortunate and can be prevented if children knew what to do when they were exposed to firearms."
More kids have been killed by firearms this year, 13, than at the same point in the last two years, 12 in 2022 and 8 in 2021. Non-fatal shooting victims are up too. Through August 2, 84 children have been victims of non-fatal shootings, compared to 63 at the same point in 2022 and 55 at this point in 2021.
It's numbers that have MPD hoping this PSA will be shared with everyone to try and make an impact on these tragic statistics.
"The message is simple," Hough said. "Youth, these are not toys. If you see a gun, always assume it's real. Don't touch it. Don't pick it up. Let an adult know it's there and always assume it's not a toy."
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