2 people shot at Graceland Cemetery in Racine

Two people were shot during a graveside funeral ceremony at Graceland Cemetery in Racine Thursday afternoon.

The shooting happened at about 2:30 p.m. as family and friends gathered at the cemetery for the funeral of Da’Shontay King Sr., who was shot and killed by Racine Police on May 20. According to witnesses who were in the area, a large funeral procession had arrived at the cemetery in a quiet neighborhood on Racine’s west side. People had gathered at the graveside when gunfire rang out.

“During the service an SUV drove up and started firing shots into the funeral procession which was full of people, and there were also shots fired back in retaliation. And then just mass chaos from that point — people running, screaming jumping fences, peeling out cars trying to get away as fast as they can,” said C.J. Rouse, a Racine alder who said he had spoken to people who were at the scene during the shooting. Rouse said he also saw video taken during the incident.

Witnesses said there were as many as 100 people at the funeral.

In the hours after the shooting, yellow police tape surrounded the grave site where a white casket sat awaiting burial. Uniformed officers went door-to-door in the neighborhood seeking information. Police tape shut off several streets surrounding the cemetery. Neighbors gathered to look over the fence where detectives had replaced mourners. Several people described hearing a barrage of gunfire from blocks away — as many as 20 to 30 shots — likely from multiple weapons.

“HOW DARE Y’ALL WHY WOULD Y’ALL TAKE AWAY OUR LAST GOODBYE Y’ALL SO WRONG FOR THIS” King’s sister wrote on social media. According to her social media posts, two women attending the funeral had been shot. Wisconsin Public Radio is not using the name or linking to the social media posts of King’s sister to protect her privacy.

Racine Police confirmed shortly after the incident that multiple people had been shot. In a later update, a police spokesperson reported that two people had been shot. One was treated and released from a local hospital. Another was taken by helicopter to a trauma center in Milwaukee.

Racine Mayor Cory Mason said Thursday night that the city would be enforcing a curfew for people under 18.

“It is a new low to see people being shot at when they are trying to bury their loved ones in a cemetery. This cannot become normal. We have got to stop the violence. We have got to do something about the gun violence in our community,” he said.

The shooting at the funeral came on the same day Democratic legislators gathered in Madison to renew a call for passage of legislation they say would address gun violence. Those proposals include a red flag law that would allow police to take weapons from a person a court had found was a danger to themselves or others. They are also proposing expanded background checks for gun purchasers.

Gun violence has been rising in Wisconsin and around the nation. Mass shootings — those where four or more people are shot — have also been on the rise. But calls for action on the issue skyrocketed after the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas that killed 19 elementary students and two teachers. The Texas shooting was the deadliest school shooting since 20 children and six adults were killed in Sandy Hook, Connecticut in 2012.

Darryl Morin, founder of the 80% Coalition, was among Democrats calling for the passage of new gun legislation Thursday in Madison. He said he was reluctant to give a count of mass shootings that had happened in the week since the Uvalde shooting, because, he said, they come so frequently.

“Since that time of the mass shooting last week, there have been more than 20 more mass shootings around our country,” Morin said.

The Racine shooting happened four hours after Morin spoke.

Among those standing near the scene watching the collection of police and media in the area were teenagers Kellyn Foster, 17, his brother Reynaldo “Tre” Brandtley, 19, and their friend Kyler Coe, 19. They had been playing basketball at a park adjacent to the cemetery when the shooting happened, and said they heard the shots and the high-pitched whistle of bullets cutting through the air.

“The first thing, the first one you hear sounds like a bottle rocket,” Coe said. “About four seconds later you hear about 20 more, and then you hear that ‘ppffum, ppffum’ and you just run. First instinct, run. You can’t do much else … I could have died on a court playing basketball. I’m only 19 years old, I can’t do anything. You realize how fast you can lose your life. It was a scary moment.”