Murder in Walker's Point

From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

A fatal shooting Saturday in Milwaukee's Walker's Point neighborhood has residents and business owners apprehensive about the safety of their burgeoning neighborhood.

A 42-year-old man who lives outside of the U.S. and has a residence in Milwaukee was shot to death early Saturday after being robbed near S. 2nd St. and W. Walker St., police said.

Police Capt. Michael Young said the man and two or three women were walking from a bar to the man's car about 1:10 a.m. As they reached the car, they were approached by two men, one of whom was carrying a handgun. The victim handed over his wallet and was shot. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

The gunman is still at large.

This is barbaric.

It's just horrible.

And the gunman has not been caught. This cold-blooded murderer is on the streets.

I wonder what he's doing now. I wonder what he's thinking. Does he feel guilty? Just a little bit?

Police would not reveal the victim's identity, where he was wounded or how many times he was shot. The Milwaukee County medical examiner's office performed an autopsy on the man Saturday, a spokeswoman said.

Young said nothing occurred inside the bar that led to the shooting. He called the homicide an "isolated event."

Oh, that's good. What a relief!

It was an "isolated event."

Walker's Pint owner Betsy Boenning was working at her tavern on S. 2nd St. a block away from the murder scene when she saw police flashers. She later walked outside to see officers roping off the scene with yellow police tape.

"I wanted to throw up," said Boenning, who has operated the bar for seven years. "We want Walker's Point to be the cool place where people come and have fun, not worry about their safety or their cars getting broken into."

Police said there is no pattern of robberies of this type in Walker's Point.

District 12 Ald. Jim Witkowiak said that the homicide is an anomaly in the neighborhood, but that the shooting follows a recent string of car break-ins. Police have stepped up patrols in the past six months in response to the increase in crime, he said.

"It's way out of character for us," Witkowiak said. "There are so many good things happening in that neighborhood. I really feel this could have happened in the parking lot of a hotel in Brookfield. I want the residents to know that we are in fact doing as much as we can do at this point."

These thugs are killing innocent people, and they're killing the city.

A horrible crime, like the murder of this man, can do enormous damage to an entire neighborhood.

...Walker's Point native Frank Gonzales, 75, said he worries how the perception of the neighborhood will affect business and residents.

"One shooting can drive people away," Gonzales said. "It took a hell of a long time to get businesses and people to come here. One incident can change that."

It could very well be that the murder was an isolated event, an anomaly.

But would you want to take the chance of becoming such an anomaly?

Hopefully, there will be an increased uniformed police presence so residents and patrons of businesses in the Walker's Point neighborhood are less afraid that they, too, will die in an isolated event.