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HomeBreakingMilwaukee Mass Murder: 4 Persons of Interest in Custody in N. 21st...

Milwaukee Mass Murder: 4 Persons of Interest in Custody in N. 21st St. Carnage

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The Milwaukee mass murder continues city’s homicide crisis.

Six people were found murdered in a house in Milwaukee along North 21st Street, sources told Wisconsin Right Now.

Milwaukee Police Chief Jeffrey Norman said in a news conference on January 27, 2022, that police have four adult persons of interest in custody. They are still trying to determine their involvement, if any, to the homicide and no charges have been referred.

Norman believes there are multiple suspects involved in the mass murder, and the time it occurred is not clear.

On Monday, there was a 911 call that was related to the mass murder but didn’t come from the house where it occurred. The woman claimed she was the victim of a shooting and that multiple other people were shot. She gave two different addresses in the vicinity of where the homicides occurred, but neither was on the right block. It came in 12 hours before the discovery of the victims.

Police later determined that she was not a victim of the shooting, and they’re investigating her connection to it, if any. Acting Mayor Cavalier Johnson said there needs to be “accountability” for criminals. Norman said they believe the people shot were “targeted.”

Milwaukee police initially found five bodies, some in the upstairs of the home, and some in the basement, the sources said. The sources said at least some of the bodies were shot execution-style.

The Milwaukee County Medical Examiner’s Office later announced that a sixth homicide victim was found in the house of horrors, bringing the death tally to five men and one women. The ME identified the victims as:

Charles Hardy, 42
Caleb Jordan, 23
Javoni Liddell, 31
Donta “Michael” Williams, 44
Michelle Williams, 49
Donald Smith, 43

Milwaukee mass murder

In a news conference before the 6th body was found, Milwaukee police Asst. Chief Paul Formolo said that at 3:45 p.m. on January 23, 2022, district 3 police officers responded to assist with a welfare check at the residence. They went inside and “five individuals were found deceased.” Four were adult males. One was an adult female. All five deaths are being treated as homicides, Formolo said in the brief news conference.

The identities are pending, he said. Autopsies will take place Monday. The motive and information regarding any suspects is not known to police right now, according to Formolo.  There is no information to suggest there is a threat to the community, he said.

It’s unclear how long the bodies were there, sources said.

Milwaukee Mass Murder Location

The home is located in the 2500 block of North 21st St. Our sources previously said: The police were responding to a welfare check. The bodies were of adults, all different ages. The motive is not clear at this point, but sources say the house has had previous drug-related calls for service.

Homicide was already up 13% in Milwaukee, with nine homicides recorded in 2022, coming on the heels of two record-setting years, according to the city’s crime dashboard. These five homicides will take the total to 14.


A woman on Facebook posted that one of the victims was her 1st cousin, Michelle Williams. WRN found several other posts in which people identified Williams as one of the victims of the Milwaukee mass murder.

Michelle williams

This is a developing story.

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Jessica McBridehttps://www.wisconsinrightnow.com
Jessica's opinions on this website and all WRN and personal social media pages, including Facebook and X, represent her own opinions and not those of the institution where she works. Jessica McBride, a Wisconsin Right Now contributor, is a national award-winning journalist and journalism educator with more than 25 years in journalism. Jessica McBride’s journalism career started at the Waukesha Freeman newspaper in 1993, covering City Hall. She was an investigative, crime, and general assignment reporter for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel for a decade. Since 2004, she has taught journalism at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Her work has appeared in many news outlets, including Heavy.com (where she is a contributor reaching millions of readers per month), Patch.com, WTMJ, WISN, WUWM, Wispolitics.com, OnMilwaukee.com, Milwaukee Magazine, Nightline, El Conquistador Latino Newspaper, Japanese and German television, Channel 58, Reader’s Digest, Twist (magazine), Wisconsin Public Radio, BBC, Wisconsin Policy Research Institute, and others. 

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