At A Vigil For Milwaukee Shooting Victims, Speakers Call For Racial Tolerance

Hundreds gathered in the rain in Milwaukee on Sunday night for a memorial to honor three shooting victims who might have been killed because of their race.

A criminal complaint against Dan Popp, who is white, alleges that he made racial statements before killing a Hmong couple and a Puerto Rican man on March 6 in the apartment building they shared.

Pao Vue, a relative of victims Phia and Mai Vue, said he feels sadness and anger.

“Our anger rises to those who have brought down these feeling to us,” Vue said.

Darryl Morin of the League of United Latin American Citizens read a note from the son of shooting victim Jesus Manso-Perez.

“My father was my role model. He was strong in will and spiritually,” Morin said.

Speakers called for racial tolerance at the memorial. University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Professor Chia Vang said the Hmong community feels vulnerable.

“It was not some random shooting where we can blame societal problems,” said Vang. “It was a deliberate act of terror committed by a neighbor to other neighbors who happens to have different skin color than this individual.”

The defendant is being evaluated for mental competency. He faces three counts of first-degree intentional homicide and one count of attempted homicide.

Correction: This story originally included a misspelling of one of the speakers’ names: It’s Darryl Morin, not Daryl Morin.