CRIME

Jury convicts gunman of killing man outside Milwaukee nightclub during mother's birthday party

Chris Ramirez
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The night of Feb. 27, 2022, started with music, food and drink, and dancing.

Norma Delgado's family and friends had turned out to a nightclub on Milwaukee's south side to celebrate her birthday.

Things took a tragic turn later; the evening would end with her son Christian Colon-Delgado laying dead in the snow-covered street outside the club and her boyfriend and older son seriously wounded by gunfire.

A Milwaukee County jury on Wednesday — some 19 months after the shooting — agreed with prosecutors that Tommy Bush pulled the trigger.

Bush, 50, was found guilty of first-degree intentional homicide and other charges stemming from the killing, one of the latest in a disturbing trend where nightclubs have played the backdrop of deadly shootings.

Bush also was found guilty of two counts of first degree recklessly endangering safety, being a felon in possession of a firearm and bail jumping. Sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 8.

Police say Christian Colon-Delgado, 29, was shot 12 times and died at the scene.

"I've not been able to speak about it," said Luis Cruz Santana, now Norma Delgado's husband, who was shot several times in the incident and spent three months in the hospital. "Each time I tried, I'd be tearful (and) end up crying."

A festive scene turns deadly

Milwaukee police say Bush interrupted the birthday party for Norma Delgado at a nightclub near South Sixth Street and West Cleveland Avenue by hitting on a woman during the celebration.

He was asked to leave and was escorted out of the establishment. A short time later, prosecutors say he confronted the three men outside the bar, while carrying a pistol, according to a criminal complaint.

Jurors were shown surveillance video earlier in the week of the gunman pointing the weapon at the men, racking it and opening fire. The gunman moments later is seen in the footage walking away quickly.

It was a sneak attack

"(He) came up behind us. We turned around and he was already shooting at us," said Cruz Santana, 53, holding up his arm and pointing his index finger to illustrate the point. "The only thing I recall is the gunshots hitting Christian and my beginning to run."

Cruz Santana's next memory was that of being in a hospital, medical staff and family hovering around him.

A nurse asked him if he knew why he was in the hospital.

"I said, 'Was it COVID?'," he replied. He was told that he'd been shot multiple times.

Cruz Santana remained in the hospital for three months. Much of that time, he was in a coma. Eventually, he was released from the hospital, but his recovery was far from over.

Cruz Santana weighed just 100 pounds when he returned home and was fitted with four drainage tubes to relieve pressure from his wounds. He was fed through IVs for seven months.

One of Norma Delgado's sons tries to save the other

Norma Delgado's older son, Giordano Delgado, was shot in the hip, but his thoughts dwelt on his younger brother, who lay bleeding a few feet away.

He clutched Christian Colon-Delgado's chest through his blood-soaked shirt, trying to revive him. He searched frantically for a heartbeat. But there was none.

No pulse, no movement. No signs of life.

Christian was gone.

"He was bleeding everywhere, and he wasn't breathing at all," said Giordano Delgado, 31.

Where else have nightclub shootings occurred?

Milwaukee nightclubs have become violent settings in recent years:

  • Andra Nicholson Jr. 24, was shot to death in December 2020 in an alley after an altercation he had with Caesar A. Fuentes, a former Hales Corner firefighter, inside Site 1A, 231 E. Buffalo St. A jury acquitted Fuentes in the shooting; his attorney argued he acted in self-defense. The nightclub has since permanently closed.