Teen driver charged in brother’s death
Right after he struck a school bus and crashed, Laron Ball ran off before returning to help his brother, who turned out to be fatally injured.
Police say Ball was hiding a handgun he was taking to settle an argument.
Now, Ball, 17, is charged with both negligent homicide and illegally possessing a firearm.
If his name sounds familiar, it’s because Ball’s father, also Laron Ball, was shot and killed as he tried to escape from a Milwaukee courtroom in 2002 by detective Alfonso Morales, now the chief of Milwaukee police.
According to the criminal complaint: Witnesses told police that about 4:30 p.m. Feb. 5, Ball flew past a stop sign at North 37th Street and West Sheridan Avenue on Feb. 5, struck a school bus, spun around and hit a tree.
When police arrived, Ball was crouched next to his 16-year-old brother, who was being attended to by emergency first responders. The driver in the bus and its lone passenger were not seriously injured.
But a witness told investigators that immediately after the crash, Ball ran from the scene before returning a short time later.
Someone else told investigators Ball had recently been in an argument and left to retrieve a gun.
In the snow behind a house near the crash, police found a .40-caliber handgun. Ball, adjudicated as a juvenile of a felony, is prohibited from possessing any firearm.
Ball is charged with homicide by negligent operation of a vehicle, driving while his license is revoked, causing death, and being a felon in possession of a gun.