3 Milwaukee Shootings Bring This Year’s Gun Homicide Tally To 41

Editor’s Note: This article is part of a Wisconsin Public Radio year-long series tracking all gun-related homicides in Wisconsin.

Three deadly shootings of African-American men in Milwaukee this week have pushed the statewide gun homicide total for the year to 41.

Milwaukee police say that on Wednesday night at around 10:30 p.m. at 20th and Wright Street, 27-year-old Phillip Nelson was found shot to death inside a car. On Friday morning, about 15 family members and friends went to the same corner for a prayer vigil for Nelson, organized by the Milwaukee Inner City Congregations Allied for Hope.

Nelson’s aunt Helen Austin says her nephew was a good man.

“It’s just a waste, the way they doing these young black men,” said Austin. “They doin’ their own selves. I love my baby. I didn’t think something like this would happen. You never think it’s close to home until it gets next to home.”

Austin said Nelson was “sweet. “

She also said the gun violence that’s plaguing low-income African-American neighborhoods in Milwaukee needs to stop. Nelson’s sister Tonia Place also said there’s too much gunfire.

Every day, day after day, somebody’s kid gets buried, somebody’s kid got killed,” said Place. “It’s a funeral every day for somebody – an African-American kid.”

Place says Phillip Nelson was the second brother of hers to die in gun violence. Another sibling was killed in 1991.

Friday’s vigil was also for 53-year-old Dale Smith, a Milwaukeean shot to death on Memorial Day. Yet to be scheduled is a prayer vigil for 25-year-old Jacoby Davis, who was shot last night in a Milwaukee County park.

Four other people were wounded by gunfire in separate incidents on Thursday night.