Violent Crime Down in Milwaukee but Certain Neighborhoods Continue to Struggle

Less than a week after her son had been shot and killed, Lisa Bullock stepped inside the Zero to 100 Fitness and MMA gym with some family and moments afterward became emotional.

The modest sized gym, located at 706 N. 26th St. on Milwaukee's west side, is where about 20 mixed martial arts fighters train, and dozens more people of all ages exercise and learn the sport.

Overlooking the mats and punching bags is a framed photo of Darion "Leo" Riley, Bullock's late son. He is covered in sweat and raising a boxing-gloved fist after an amateur fight last year, which he lost, despite the praise of commentators in the broadcast booth: "Riley is as tough as they come…That kid's got a bright future."

The gym's owner and trainer, Marlon Culpepper, charges less than what other fighting gyms cost. He awards scholarships and requires his trainees to volunteer in the community. His gym is designed to be a haven for anyone looking for direction and a safe space.

Before coming to the gym, Riley, 27, struggled with mental health and legal issues. But after a friend introduced him to the sport two years ago, he immersed himself in it, training several times a day, coaching his teammates and letting his two daughters, ages 7 and 3, run around.

"This place did a lot for him," Bullock said. "He felt like he belonged somewhere."

At a time when many Milwaukee institutions are trying to find ways to engage young people with productive activities, Riley found his path. His strongest showing came in a victory by decision in February. A month later, on March 23, he was shot and killed inside his own home on Milwaukee's northwest side.

"We feel like we lost one of our family members," Culpepper said. "It doesn't make sense why he's gone. It's hard for people to figure out why. Being the leader of the gym, I'm trying to explain it and I can't. I want to be able to explain things to my guys — why things are the way they are."

Riley's family and friends are just a few of many in Milwaukee searching for answers as the city's historic violent crime rate continued unabated in the first quarter of 2022.

Winter months are commonly associated with a downturn in violent crime, but 53 homicides were reported in the first three months of 2022. It's a figure that more closely resembles Milwaukee's homicide rate in warmer months over the last two years and it is double the number of homicides reported after the first three months of 2021, when the city broke its record for the second year in a row.

Cities across the U.S. have been dealing with a historic rise in violent crime since 2020 and the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic, which disrupted the lives of hundreds of millions of Americans, and the murder of George Floyd, which some experts believe diminished police legitimacy in some communities.

It's unclear the degree to which elevated levels of violent crime have continued across the nation in 2022, but early signs do show several cities, such as Atlanta, New Orleans, Houston and Baltimore, are also dealing with an increase in homicides ranging from 14% to 55%, according to data collected by crime analyst Jeff Asher.

In Milwaukee, the conversations around violent crime have not changed much. Public safety officials and activists are in agreement that the driving force behind the violence is a volatile mixture of interpersonal conflict escalating to lethal violence due to the easy access of guns.

Police are struggling to keep up with a mounting caseload while prioritizing building relationships in the community. The city's modestly-sized team of violence interrupters, who mediate conflicts between residents to prevent retaliation, is flush with additional federal funding, but hasn't had time to expand its operations. All the while, new data shows that guns are going from store shelves to crime scenes at a faster rate.

"They settle disagreements with a gun," said Tracey Dent, a community activist. "There's no way to sugarcoat it. It's so easy to get a gun on the streets."

Surge in homicides coincides with record gun sales in Wisconsin and across the country

Milwaukee's homicide clearance rate stood at 57% as of April 1. And while police often do not detail the circumstances of homicides and nonfatal shootings, more details emerge after criminal charges are filed. Many of them filed this year portray impulsive actions.

Two men cross paths at a gas station, exchange words and begin fighting. A man is kicked out of a bar after harassing a woman who was attending a family party. A Good Samaritan tries interrupting an argument between two people on the street. In each incident, someone pulls out a gun and another is killed.

The latest available data from the Milwaukee Homicide Review Commission, from January through February, shows that arguments continue to be cited as the primary factor behind homicides and nonfatal shootings.

They account for 43% of such incidents so far this year, up about 10% from each of the past two years, according to the commission. The primary cause behind roughly a third of homicides and nonfatal shootings go unexplained year to year.

Blacks make up 86% of victims and 94% of suspects of nonfatal shootings and homicides. It continues long-held demographic trends because of decades of neglect, poverty and racial segregation in Milwaukee.

Local officials and criminologists have often pointed toward the added stress, uncertainty and disruption caused by the pandemic as an underlying factor in the nationwide rise in violent crime.

"Much of what we see is spontaneous, it's interpersonal," said Arnitta Holliman, the director of the city's Office of Violence Prevention. "And so there's only so much you can do. We're not standing in people's homes in the middle of a conflict to try to prevent it."

The nationwide surge of violent crime has also been accompanied with record-setting gun sales in 2020 followed by only a slight drop-off in 2021, according to SafeHome.org. For context, the number of guns sold in Wisconsin now is double what it was 20 years ago.

Those guns are getting involved in criminal acts faster. New data from the federal government, called "time-to-crime" stats, shows that in 2020, the average time it took for a gun in Wisconsin to be purchased from a retailer to being recovered by police narrowed from 6.9 years in 2019 to 5.8 in 2020.

More than half of those guns were recovered in Milwaukee, where police have seen gun recoveries climb 25% from 2019 to 2021. This year, recoveries are up 12% as of April 1 compared to the same date in 2021.

What drove the decline in Wisconsin's time-to-crime in 2020 was an 83% increase in the number of guns recovered by police within one year of purchase. The number of guns recovered within three months of purchase more than doubled, totaling almost 800.

In Milwaukee, police have often noted that many of the guns they recover were acquired through straw purchases. They have also noted an increase in guns stolen from homes and cars.

It's worth noting that there are a number of caveats that come with time-to-crime stats, namely that not every gun used in a crime is recovered, and not every recovered gun is traced. Guns are usually traced to the first retail seller and not any transactions in between.

Still, Richard Rosenfeld, a criminologist at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, said "there's no question" the numbers point to an essential truth.

"It suggests that there's an increasing demand on the part of people who would misuse firearms in the commission of a crime, for example," Rosenfeld said.

Milwaukee officials target access to guns

Getting ahead of the violence has proven to be a difficult task for Milwaukee police.

The department practices a strategy called "place-based policing," where officials identify problematic people and places and increase officer visibility in those spots.

The strategy has been cited as a key factor in lowering violent crime in other cities last year, such as Dallas. But Milwaukee Police Chief Jeffrey Norman said it's had uneven results locally. He said isolated incidents, sometimes involving those with no previous criminal record, are hard to anticipate.

"This is not like you're dealing with a particular turf war of an area," Norman said. "The unfortunate thing is that we're seeing so much random behavior, it's hard for us to have that crystal ball."

Last fall, the department began collaborating with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives on an initiative in which federal agencies will notify Milwaukee police when someone tries purchasing a gun at a licensed retailer but is rejected after failing a background check, Norman said. Officers will then contact the prospective buyer and warn them that they are not supposed to possess a gun.

Norman said he has also put pressure on the department's criminal investigation bureau to identify sources of firearms, but it's been difficult to keep up with the caseload.

"There was a lot of firearms bought within a short span of time and that really is a challenge," he said.

There are other initiatives outside the Police Department that have not yet materialized.

Cavalier Johnson, who was elected mayor Tuesday but had served in the role in an acting capacity since December, told a crowd in late March he hasn't had a chance to implement the public safety plan that played a large role in his campaign.

He said the short-notice election, following the resignation of Mayor Tom Barrett, had put time constraints on the plan's implementation.

The plan includes investments in law enforcement, community healing and neighborhood-level initiatives. And he has also frequently spoken about repairing relations with the state Legislature and finding ways to keep guns out of the wrong hands.

The Office of Violence Prevention is also receiving a windfall of funds this year — $11 million that was filtered to the office through the Common Council and Gov. Tony Evers from the American Rescue Plan Act.

Among other things, the extra cash is expected to expand the office's team of violence interrupters, called 414Life, on the city's north and south sides. But Holliman, the director, said those developments are still in planning phases.

Riley's killing likely another example of a homicide without a primary cause

Roughly one-third of homicides and nonfatal shootings every year do not have an identified primary cause behind it, according to the Homicide Review Commission. For all that Riley's family knows at this point, the incident that took his life may be one of them.

His family said Riley was sitting in bed at his home in the Metcalfe Park neighborhood when a bullet from a drive-by shooting struck his back. They do not know if he was the intended target.

Police have not provided any details of the circumstances of the shooting and did not confirm or deny the details from the family. A suspect has not been identified.

A GoFundMe has been established to help pay for Riley's funeral costs. It raised nearly $4,200 of a $6,000 goal as of Saturday.

Outwardly, Riley came off as a smiley goofball who preached spirituality, healthy eating and exercise.

"He had talent in everything except for dancing," said his older sister, Bryttanie Forbes.

But inwardly, Riley struggled. He was diagnosed at a young age with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, his mother said. He suffered from depression. His concern for his station in life and the struggles of some of his family members weighed on him.

He tried gardening and meditating, but neither had the impact that mixed martial arts had. In the gym, in the ring, he stayed positive. He was gentle against teammates new to the sport. He meshed his team with his family by frequently bringing his daughters with him to train.

Culpepper considered Riley's fighting style unusual. He marveled at how quickly Riley could process things during a fight, while sometimes disengaging and wandering around the ring somewhat.

When his family watched, they saw a son, a brother, a father at peace.

"That was him," Bullock said. "I was so proud of him."

Contact Elliot Hughes at elliot.hughes@jrn.com or 414-704-8958. Follow him on Twitter @elliothughes12.

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Source: https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/2022/04/12/milwaukee-historic-homicide-totals-gun-violence-continue-2022/7217884001/

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