Man arrested in shooting
He was wanted in connection with incident last week on I-43
The 24-year-old man wanted in a shooting on I-43 was arrested Monday, one day after authorities released his name and photo, the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office said.
Jonathan D. Perez-Perez of Milwaukee was taken into custody Monday afternoon by sheriff’s detectives and task force members from the U.S. Marshals Service and the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
“Working with our task force partners, we were able to pursue and take this dangerous subject off the street,” Acting Sheriff Richard Schmidt said in a news release.
“His reckless behavior endangered the lives of many innocent people, and he will be held accountable.”
Shortly before 5 p.m. Friday, deputies were sent to southbound I-43 between W. Hampton Ave. and W. Capitol Drive after a motorist was shot by someone inside another vehicle.
The southbound freeway was shut down between Silver Spring Drive and North Ave. for 31⁄2 hours during the afternoon commute while deputies looked for evidence.
Perez-Perez was determined to be the “known suspect” in the shooting and authorities released his name and photo Sunday.
In 2012, Perez-Perez was caught with a .40-caliber gun under his seat
when he was a passenger in a friend’s car. He told a Milwaukee police officer he paid $70 for the gun less than two weeks before and he put it under the seat when he was picked up by his friend, according to a criminal complaint.
Perez-Perez was charged with misdemeanor carrying a concealed weapon, but the case was dismissed after his lawyer argued the stop and search were illegal and therefore the gun, a key piece of evidence, could not be used in court. The judge agreed and, without the gun, prosecutors moved to dismiss the case.
He has not been involved in any other criminal cases in Wisconsin, according to online court records.
The shooting on Friday was the second last week on I-43.
On Sept. 25, a shooting caused a crash and shut down northbound I-43
traffic near Walnut St. for about four hours. No one was injured and investigators found 19 shell casings on the freeway.
Witness accounts indicated an occupant of one vehicle was shooting at another vehicle. A southbound vehicle was hit by a bullet and a northbound vehicle was hit by one of the subject vehicles as it fled, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
Witnesses described the vehicles involved as a dark red or maroon SUV and a dark-red sedan. On Monday, Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Fran McLaughlin said no updates were available about that shooting.
The two incidents have brought more attention to shootings involving vehicles, often in public places where bystanders can easily be hurt. Still, from an informal perspective, there does not seem to be an increase of shots fired from vehicles, according to the Milwaukee
Police Department, which responds to hundreds of shootings each year.
On Saturday, Milwaukee officers were called to a “shots fired” incident just after 10 a.m. in the 100 block of N. 35th St. near the I-94 freeway.
Two people inside in a Toyota RAV 4 shot at an occupied vehicle and then fled the scene, police said. Nobody was injured and officers continued to search for the suspects on Monday.