21 People Shot In Downtown Milwaukee After Friday's Bucks-Celtics Game

MILWAUKEE, WI — Nearly two dozen people were injured in three shootings in downtown Milwaukee in the hours following Friday's playoff game between the Bucks and the Boston Celtics, according to police.

Twenty-one people were injured in all, according to Milwaukee police. Ten people have been arrested and nine firearms have been recovered in connection with the largest shooting, Assistant Police Chief Nicole Waldner said during a news conference Saturday streamed by WISN 12.

Seventeen people were shot during a confrontation between two groups of people, despite a large concentration of police in the area, Waldner said. The shooting happened in the 1100 block of Water Street near Highland Avenue just before 11:10 p.m., according to Waldner.

Five of the injured were armed and taken into custody, Waldner said. Other possible suspects remain at large, she added.

None of the injuries following Friday night's game were believed to be life-threatening.

"It was the perfect storm," Waldner said. "It goes further than respect for law enforcement, it goes toward respecting human life."

Mayor Cavalier Johnson said the issue is beyond a policing problem. "This is a community problem," he said during Saturday's conference.

Johnson said he would impose a temporary curfew this weekend in the area where the shootings happened. Starting at 11 p.m. and until 5:30 a.m. both Saturday and Sunday, nobody under 21 years old will be allowed in an area between West Vel R. Phillips Avenue and Broadway Avenue, and between Knapp Street and State Street, according to a police news release.

"What happened here last night will not be tolerated," Johnson said.

State Sen. LaTonya Johnson, a Democrat, called for further gun regulation during Saturday's conference.

"We are not only putting residents in danger, we are putting police officers in danger because they are outgunned," Johnson said.

Two other shootings happened Friday night near Fiserv Forum in the city's Deer District, where thousands of people gathered to watch Game 6 of the Eastern Conference semifinal playoff series between the Bucks and Celtics. Just steps from the arena, two men and a teenage girl were injured in a shooting, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.

Police said a 29-year-old man was arrested in connection with the first shooting.

Soon after that shooting, a 20-year-old man was shot on North Water Street near West Highland Avenue. The shooting that wounded 17 people happened in the same location 30 minutes later, according to the Journal-Sentinel.

Police do not believe the three shootings were connected, Waldner said during the conference.

Witnesses told WTMJ-TV that they saw a fight outside a bar following the basketball game.

Bill Reinemann, a parking attendant at a lot adjacent to Deer District, said he heard gunshots but didn’t see anyone get shot or see the shooter during the earlier shooting.

"It sounded like six to eight gunshots," he told The Associated Press. "It was close."

After the shots were fired, scores of fans began running toward the Deer District, he said.
Reinemann, who has worked the lot for 18 years, remained at his post even as fearful Bucks fans ran past him.

"I sat in my chair here the whole while," he said.

Milwaukee was among several U.S. cities that saw record numbers of killings in 2021, most of them involving guns. The list also included Philadelphia, Indianapolis and others. Experts believe stress and pressures caused by the COVID-19 pandemic contributed to the violence.

Of Milwaukee’s 193 killings in 2021, 180 were by firearms. Another 873 people were wounded in shootings, according to police data.

This year, the pace is even worse. Milwaukee has already recorded 77 killings, a 40 percent increase from the same time in 2021. The number of nonfatal shootings this year is 264, two less than from the same time a year ago.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.