Milwaukee WI, More homicides going unsolved; difficult cases blamed
Mark Fenster
By REID J. EPSTEIN and TOM RYBARCZYK
reps...@journalsentinel.com
Last Updated: July 15, 2003
Prakash Patel dreamed of becoming an accountant until he was gunned
down in his car May 22.
Patel, 23, a University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee student who tutored
others in math, also spent lots of time persuading children in his
Sherman Park neighborhood to stay in school, said his mother, Janice
Brar.
"A lot of kids that came to the funeral said he was their idol," she
said.
Nearly eight weeks later, Milwaukee police still have not made an
arrest in Patel's death.
It's one of an unusually high number of unsolved homicides in the
city. Authorities say detectives are simply in a slump and will
probably clear most of the cases by year's end.
From Jan. 1 to April 15, the Milwaukee Police Department determined
the killers in 18 of the city's 24 homicides, or 75% of the killings.
But in the last three months, all but nine of Milwaukee's 26 slayings
have gone unsolved, for a clearance rate of only 35%. The department's
standard clearance rate is 80%.
"They've had a clump of difficult cases," said Mark Williams, the
assistant district attorney who prosecutes homicides, "like gang
shootings and home invasions and drive-bys. Normally you need to be
patient and wait for someone to open their mouth in order to get a
break on the case."
Police consider a homicide cleared when an arrest is made or the
identified killer dies, regardless of whether criminal charges are
ultimately brought against the suspect.
Most solved within a day
Experts say the more time passes after a homicide, the longer the odds
of making an arrest. James Alan Fox, a criminal justice professor at
Northeastern University in Boston, said two-thirds of all homicides
are solved within a day of the crime.
In 21 homicides this year, Milwaukee police officers were able to
clear the killing - either through an arrest or through the suspect's
suicide - within a week. Four others were solved within two weeks of
the crime.
"There's definitely a tendency for the probability of clearance to
diminish rapidly," Fox said. "The cases that are easy to solve are
solved quickly; the cases that aren't easy, aren't solved. The longer
the time, the more likely it's in the latter category, which means it
may never get solved."
Milwaukee police Capt. Brian O'Keefe, who leads the department's
homicide unit, said he expects his detectives to solve enough cases to
return the department's clearance rate to normal.
"We ran into a stretch," he said. "But at the end of the year, I think
we'll back where we usually are."
O'Keefe's detectives, along with the U.S. Marshals Service fugitive
task force, are looking for 10 suspects from Milwaukee killings that
took place between 1986 and 2001, according to the marshals service.
Milwaukee police detectives are also seeking two people who they
believe are responsible for 2003 homicides.
Usually better than average
The department's clearance rate, which perennially hovers above 80%,
is usually well above the national average for large cities, about
65%, according to the FBI.
The city's official 2003 FBI year-to-date clearance rate is 69%, which
includes seven cases from previous years the department cleared in
2003. But of the 50 homicides that actually took place in 2003 as of
Tuesday, police have cleared 27, or 54%. Two killings, from 1982 and
1984, are listed as cleared on the city's official 2003 homicide log
because they weren't discovered until April.
Police Chief Arthur Jones said it's not that unusual for the
department to see a dry spell and then solve a batch of homicides at
the same time.
"Sometimes we get clearances in bunches," he said. "Sometimes we bring
someone in and clear three, four or five homicides at once. Sometimes
things that we don't think are related become interconnected and we
go, 'Wow.' "
Other victims of as-yet unsolved violent crime in Milwaukee include:
· Milciades Veras, 50, who died in an apparent home invasion June 28
when three masked men entered her home in the 2100 block of S. 15th
St. and opened fire.
· DeShaun Elliot, 26, who was killed in a drive-by shooting June 22
while standing by himself at the corner of N. 44th St. and W. Center
St.
· Jordan Phillip, 21, who was sitting on the porch of a house in the
2900 block of N. 1st St. on June 22 when he was shot and killed.
Police have not said whether the shooter was on foot or in a vehicle.
· Marques Messling, 25, who was ambushed while sitting in his car at
the corner of W. Capitol Drive and N. 31st St. on June 12.
Milwaukee County Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. for patrol by his gun
reduction interdiction program. In specific north side and south side
neighborhoods, deputies are conducting consent searches of vehicles
looking for guns.
Clarke, who was a detective and later a shift commander on the
homicide unit during his 24-year stint with the Milwaukee Police
Department, said the steady pace of killings in the city makes things
difficult for detectives.
"People get busy and move on to the next case," he said. "You have to
take the one you worked on last week and put it aside. But eventually,
you have to come back to it."
Survivors frustrated
Patel's mother, Janice Brar, said police are not doing enough to solve
her son's slaying. Her frustration, she said, is fueled by the Police
Department's lack of communication with her. She's tried calling the
detectives but said she has received only one unsolicited phone call
from investigators.
"I feel like I am getting the leads on my own more than they are
leading," said Brar, who echoed feelings expressed by family members
of other recent homicide victims. "It's sad when they just push it
aside. . . . Where are our tax dollars going? What exactly are they
doing?"
Milwaukee police policy is not to comment on ongoing investigations.
John L. Sullivan, a former deputy chief in the Las Vegas Police
Department and now a consultant, said policies on contact with
victims' families vary by department. But he said it's good community
relations to have investigators update families not only on homicides
but also other crimes.
"It shows good faith on the department'spart," Sullivan said. "I think
it just fosters a good relationship with everyone concerned."
Jones said he's confident that detectives will be able to ultimately
determine who isresponsible for most of the city's outstanding
killings.
"Most of these cases are solved because we receive information, and
then we go back and we look at evidence and we see if the information
matches the evidence," Jones said. "We have been successful in doing
that year after year after year, and by the end of the year, our
clearance rates are up around 80 percent."
Gina Barton of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report.