CRIME

18-year-old charged in Thanksgiving shooting that left 17-year-old dead in Milwaukee

TJ Dysart
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Al'Jevon Wilkins, the 17-year-old killed in Milwaukee on Thanksgiving, was shot by his partner's ex-boyfriend, according to a criminal complaint filed this week.

Elijah Dent, 18, of Milwaukee has been charged with first degree intentional homicide in connection with the killing, which occurred in an apartment on the 2400 block of West Wells Street.

Wilkins is the 20th child to die by homicide in Milwaukee in 2023, according to data from the Medical College of Wisconsin and police reports. It marks the fourth straight year the city has endured at least 20 child homicides – most of which are committed by firearms.

The Journal Sentinel was unable to reach members of Al'Jevon's family.

"What am I going to do without you?" his mother wrote on Facebook.

A witness to the shooting told police she dated Dent earlier this year but ended the relationship after he became abusive.

Teen dating violence is prevalent throughout the U.S., with as many as 69% of young people reporting victimization, according to National Institute of Justice. Only one out of every three teens affected by it tells their parents, according to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services.

Dent made his initial court appearance Wednesday and has a cash bond set at $250,000. It is unclear if he has been assigned an attorney as of Friday.

Prior to turning 18, Dent had been charged in March with a misdemeanor count of carrying a dangerous weapon as a minor. He did not attend the following court hearings and an arrest warrant was issued for him in June, according to online court records.

According to the criminal complaint:

A 911 call came in just shortly before 11 a.m. Nov. 23 initially reporting the shooting.

During the call, which lasted a total of just over five minutes, a male voice could be heard saying "You don't have to tell nobody I did that."

Officers who initially responded to the scene found Al'Jevon lying on a futon with two gunshot wounds to the head. Al'Jevon was pronounced dead on the scene.

Detectives spoke to a resident of the same apartment complex where Al'Jevon died. The resident stated that the woman who dialed 911 was his girlfriend's sister, and that he had seen her asleep on his futon with Al'Jevon that morning.

The told police he left earlier that morning to go to a store with his friend, leaving the apartment door unlocked.

When the resident returned, he noticed the female was crying in the doorway and also noticed Al'Jevon was bleeding on the futon.

The female who called 911 gave multiple statements to investigators.

She told police that she was asleep with Al'Jevon, who she "considered to be her boyfriend," on the futon.

At some point, she woke up and noticed a "subject in black standing over them."

The complaint said that the identified the person as her ex-boyfriend, Dent.

She said Dent then shot Al'Jevon and proceeded to point the gun at her.

She told investigators that while she was on the phone with 911, Dent pointed the gun at himself and asked if she was going to tell on him.

Before police arrived, Dent ran out of the apartment.

She told police she and Dent started dating in March of this year, but ultimately broke up in July when the 911 caller said Dent became obsessed and abusive. Dent also has a tattoo of her name on his name.

The next day, Dent was arrested at an apartment near North Teutonia Avenue where he was found hiding in a closet and taken into custody.

Child homicides have doubled since 2020

Wilkins is the 20th minor to die by homicide in Milwaukee in 2023, according to data from the Medical College of Wisconsin and police reports. It marks the fourth straight year the city has endured at least 20 child homicides – most of which are committed by firearms.

Children in Milwaukee and the rest of the nation have been increasingly killed or injured from firearms since 2020. That year, firearm-related injuries surpassed motor vehicle crashes as the leading cause of death for people between 1 and 19 years old, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Experts have tied the increase to the affects of the COVID-19 pandemic, which disrupted social service outreach, and increased availability of guns after sales reached historic levels in 2020.

In Milwaukee, child homicides and injuries caused by guns have doubled since 2020.

In the four years prior to 2020, about nine children died by homicide every year and 49 were injured in shootings, according to data from the Medical College of Wisconsin. Since then, including the first 10 and a half months of 2023, an average of 24 children died by homicide every year and another 103 were injured in shootings.

How to find help for teen dating violence

Milwaukee Public Schools has a webpage full of resources regarding healthy relationships and dating violence prevention here.

The school district also recommends these agencies for support: