2 More Gun Homicides Bring Year’s Total To 81

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

The shooting deaths of two Milwaukee men this week have pushed the statewide gun homicide total to 81 for the year.

Milwaukee police say Marcus Bland, a 26-year-old black man, was shot to death during a neighborhood fight on Wednesday evening. Police also say Nikola Maric, a 20-year-old white man, was shot to death on a Milwaukee street on Thursday night.

During a visit this week to Milwaukee, Leon Andrews of the National League of Cities gave the big picture of gun homicides for African-Americans.

“We see it literally across this country: Every 24 hours, 14 young men are gunned down in this country,” said Andrews. “That’s today, that’s tomorrow — 14 young men.”

Andews was in town to do more than deliver bleak numbers: He was part of a delegation that’s helping implement President Barack Obama’s “My Brother’s Keeper” achievement campaign for African-American males. One site the group toured was Northcott Neighborhood House, where it saw a graduation ceremony for low-income residents who had just completed a job training program.

Graduate Lushion Chappell said that while spending some time in jail, he was able to try to turn things around.

“I thought about it going in — like, I know I’m going to lose everything,” said Chappell. “It was the grace of God picking me up. Having to rebuild the way that I thought and believed and felt — it’s not just about who I am and what I am, it’s about where I’m heading in life.”

In Dane County, homicide charges were issued on Friday against a former sheriff’s deputy accused in the shooting deaths last Friday of two white females, Ashlee Steele and Kacee Tollefsbol.