MILWAUKEE — A 20-year-old woman was fatally shot in Milwaukee's Walker's Point neighborhood late Sunday night.
Milwaukee police responded to an apartment building at the corner of South 3rd Street and Mineral Street just before midnight. They took a 22-year-old man into custody. Charges are pending review by the Milwaukee County District Attorney's office.
The only other details police are providing so far, is that this crime is tied to domestic violence.
This marks the first domestic violence-related homicide of 2023. Advocates are working diligently to stop the trend of rising domestic violence in Milwaukee. The increase started in 2019 and was exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic.
"We've been in a state of emergency," said Carmen Pitre, President and CEO of Sojourner Family Peace Center. "If there's a word beyond emergency, we would be using it. The levels of violence we've been seeing in this city have been far above what we were seeing before. We need everybody invested in this, and talking about it at every level."
About four months ago, Sojourner received $1 million in state funding to build-up the Milwaukee County Domestic Violence High Risk Team, which works solely on intervening before abusive, unhealthy relationships and households turn deadly.
"We're really going to double down on that work this year," said Pitre. "The goal is being able to predict which case is going to be lethal, or end in homicide, and prevent that."
The Alma Center helps by working with men in the criminal justice system, who have a history of domestic violence. Through the center's different classes and programs, leaders try to get to the root of a recovering abuser's own life trauma, so they don't perpetuate that trauma/abuse to others.
"Helping me step through the journey of working on themselves and helping them heal themselves," said James Mosley, a senior facilitator at the Alma Center. "Now, that doesn't mean we're looking past their violent behavior or what they did. Instead, we're really trying to get to the root of what happened to them to make them do this."
James Mosley works directly with the men, teaching a class twice a week for six months.
"It's about learning how to interact with others, communicate in healthy ways in relationships, unlearn toxic masculinity and unhealthy patterns," said Mosley. "They can start writing a new story by looking inside themselves and taking responsibility."
Sixty percent of men helped by The Alma Center witnessed abuse, and/or had a parent who abused drugs or alcohol. Half of them had friends or family murdered.
