MILWAUKEE — A 15-year-old girl is hospitalized with critical injuries after being shot near 17th and Capitol Thursday night. Milwaukee police are still investigating and have no one in custody for it.
On Friday morning, Mayor Cavalier Johnson, local activists, and people directly impacted by gun violence gathered at city hall to declare this first week of February, “National Gun Violence Survivors Week” in Milwaukee.
Gun violence has become a public health crisis in the city, and leaders are asking everyone who lives and works here, to get involved in solutions.
Currently, it’s the people who’ve lost loved ones to gun violence who are doing the most to foster change. They know too well the painful ripple effects of gun violence on families, school and neighborhoods.
“I miss you so much Amareon,” said Amareon’s mom, Kewannee Allen, while standing beside his grave. “There’s not a day or time that goes by that I don’t think of you.”
TMJ4’s Katie Crowther stood with Kewannee at Amareon’s gravesite Friday – a day before he would have turned 21. Kewannee will be back at Graceland Cemetery tomorrow with her whole family. They’ll send up balloons to heaven and go out to eat in honor of Amareon’s birthday.
Amareon, a Marshall High School football standout, was shot and killed at a home in Brown Deer in November of 2021. He was just 19 years old. At the time, he was home from college in Iowa.
“I was very proud of him,” Kewannee said. “My son wasn’t a bad kid. He had no criminal record. He was a good kid with a bright future. He lit up every room. People loved him. I still don’t fully know or understand what happened.”
Three Brown Deer detectives showed up at her door, as she was waiting for her son to come home, wondering why he was late.
“The man asked me what my son had been wearing, so I described everything he had on.” Kewannee said. “Then he asked if he could show me a photo, and I didn’t want to see it, because I knew right then that something happened, and my baby was gone. My husband ended up looking at the picture and just put his head down.”
It’s been a little over a year, and Kewannee has kept Amareon’s bedroom exactly as he left it.
“I can’t get myself to remove or change anything,” she said. “His dirty clothes are still in the dirty clothes basket.”
Before coming to the cemetery, Kewannee had gathered with other mothers who’ve lost children to gun violence, and advocates fighting for stricter gun laws.
“We have to be there for everyone,” Kewannee said. “Trying to make sure no other mother goes through this brings me a little peace. It’s sad that shootings keep happening. I wish I had all the answers to stop the violence, but I don’t.”
“As parents, we can do everything to make sure our kids are on the right track, but that doesn’t mean that sometimes they will make a wrong decision,” she continued. “That doesn’t mean every child we lose to violence comes from a bad home or has bad parents. It only took one time for my son to tell me he was going somewhere, then ended up somewhere else. I had a gut feeling as a mother that something wasn’t right, and now I’m not ever going to get him back. It just hurts. He was only 19 and had so much potential.”
Kewannee keeps moving forward, because she knows her other kids need her. So does this cause, of sparing more young people from gun violence, and keeping more mothers in Milwaukee at peace.
