Milwaukee sees rise in mass shootings
Recent incident is 23rd in city since 2020
The shooting on Milwaukee’s north side Monday that killed a 15-year-old and injured five adults was the 23rd mass shooting in the city since 2020.
The shooting, the latest in a string of apparent interpersonal conflicts spilling over into mass gun violence, was reported at 11:25 p.m. on the 1400 block of West Concordia Avenue. Police released no information on the circumstances of the shooting, other than it appeared to be related to an argument. Unknown suspects are sought.
Mike Hall, 50, said he was walking his dog about a half-mile away at the time when he overheard a barrage of what sounded like automatic gunfire.
“Another young teenager,” he said as he shook his head Tuesday morning.
The shooting continues two hardto-stomach trends within Milwaukee’s three-plus years of historic gun violence: more frequent victimization of children and more outbursts of mass gun violence.
The 15-year-old was identified as Davion Patterson by the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner’s Office. Efforts to reach his family were not successful Tuesday.
He is the seventh child to die by homicide so far this year, according to police. It comes as fatal child gun violence has doubled since 2020 – when the pandemic arrived and disrupted social services, employment and education for millions of Americans – with more than 20 victims each of the last three years.
It is also Milwaukee’s 23rd mass shooting – defined as four or more people who are injured or killed, not including any shooter – in the threeplus years since 2020, according to the Gun Violence Archive, which tracks incidents nationwide. A 24th incident also occurred in Wauwatosa during that time.
In the three years prior to that, Milwaukee experienced just five such incidents. The Violence Project, a nonprofit research group which uses a more narrow definition of mass shootings, has also charted an increase nationwide in recent years.
Reggie Moore, the director of com