Six Found Slaughtered in Milwaukee Home; Four People in Custody

Four unidentified individuals are in custody after Police found six people shot to death in a Milwaukee home last Sunday.

As of Thursday, no charges were “referred to the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office,” WITI reports.

Upon entering the residence, they found five men and one woman shot to death.

The Milwaukee County Medical Examiner’s Office has identified the victims as Donald Smith, 43, Donta Williams, 44, Michelle Williams, 49, Caleb Jordan, 23, Javoni Liddell, 31, and Charles Hardy, 42, WISN reports.

Smith, and both Michelle and Donta Williams, lived at the residence.

“We were told that it was execution-style,” Michelle’s cousin, Tiffany Cole-Whittington, informed WISN.

Sources told the outlet that investigators do not know if the victims were killed the day authorities discovered their bodies.

In a news conference on Thursday, Milwaukee Police Chief Jeffrey Norman said about 12 hours before the bodies were found, a 911 caller said she was the victim of a shooting and indicated that there were other shooting victims, WISN reports.

Norman said she provided authorities with two addresses, neither of which was the residence where the homicide victims were found, and officers did not find victims at the homes, WISN reports. He noted investigators located the caller and discovered she was not injured.

Norman did not say if the 911 caller was one of the four persons of interest in custody.

He explained the attack appears to be targeted and he believes multiple suspects were involved. 

“Court records obtained by the WISN 12 Investigative Unit show three of the six victims’ names appear on a witness list for a pending homicide case in Milwaukee County Court,” the outlet reports. It was not specified which victims were on the list. 

A reporter asked Norman if the individuals were targeted because they were on the list.

Per WISN, he responded:

We are still looking into all angles. Obviously, you never want to use one explanation for a particular incident and stick to that; understanding that there might be some other angles we have to explore. At this time, we’re pretty sure that that is not relative to this particular incident, but we never want to take away any particular explanation for what we’re finding in this investigation.

During the press conference, Norman also said that “it does not look like it is a murder-suicide.”

Ronald Smith, the brother of victims Donta Williams and Donald Smith, and brother-in-law to Michelle Williams, spoke to WITI about the massacre.

“I would never think this would happen to my family,” said Smith.

“I don’t know why somebody would do this to them,” he added. “I don’t.”