6 teenagers injured in shooting following Milwaukee Juneteenth celebration

Six teenagers were shot and wounded after a Juneteenth celebration in Milwaukee Monday afternoon.

Shots rang out at about 4:20 p.m. as a large crowd lingered on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive near the intersection of West Locust Street following the celebration that had drawn thousands of people for a festival and parade.

Video posted on social media showed a physical fight broke out between two girls on the crowded street as vendors nearby were packing up from the event, which ended at 4 p.m. A group of people gathered around the girls before the crowd scattered and screaming and shots range out.

Police Chief Jeffrey Norman said a 17-year-old boy — who was also wounded in the shooting — had fired at least some of the shots. No one was killed in the incident, and Norman said none of those shot had life-threatening injuries. Those injured included four females and two males, and ranged in age from 14 to 19.

A visibly frustrated Norman said adults need to work to keep guns out of the hands of teenagers.

“Milwaukee, what is going on with our children?” Norman said. “Parents, guardians, elders, we need to engage and ensure that this violence that our children are bringing to these streets cease. No handgun, no weapon of destruction, should be in the hands of our young ones.”

He also said police are continuing to investigate the incident, saying they were “seeking additional unknown shooters at this time.”

Milwaukee has one of the oldest Juneteenth celebrations in the country, marking the day with a parade each year since 1971. Mayor Cavalier Johnson said the event has been growing every year. Norman said he has been working at the celebration as an organizer for eight years.

“Nothing like this has ever happened before,” Norman said.

At a press conference Monday, Johnson took pains to try to separate the shooting from the celebration. But he said that the violence breaking out while people were still in the area for a community event was unacceptable.

“Look, today there were families out here. There were kids out here, there were babies out here,” Johnson said. “And it does not sit well with me, it does not sit well with the people who live in this neighborhood, it does not sit well with the men and women of the Milwaukee Police Department … for folks to think it is OK to take out a gun in a densely populated area and shoot some shots off.”

It wasn’t the only celebration of the holiday that was marred by a mass shooting. In Willowbrook, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, one person was killed and 22 injured in a shooting during a Juneteenth celebration Sunday.

Milwaukee has struggled with violent crime and shootings in recent years. But the murder rate has been dropping this year, with homicides down 32 percent year-to-date compared to last year. Non-fatal shootings are down slightly, with about 361 shootings through June 15 this year, down about 7 percent compared to last year.