Milwaukee man pleads guilty to shooting inside police station
A Milwaukee man accused of opening fire in a police station won't go to trial after pleading guilty to charges stemming from the February 2022 incident.
Darreon Parker-Bell, 24, pleaded guilty Monday to four counts of recklessly endangering safety with use of a dangerous weapon as part of a special "NGI plea" brought by the district attorney's office. Four other counts of the same charge were dismissed.
In this case, the plea involved a mental health evaluation to determine if Parker-Bell "lacked substantial capacity either to appreciate the wrongfulness of his or her conduct or conform his or her conduct to the requirements of law" as a result of mental disease or defect, in accordance with Wisconsin statutes. As a result, the case is broken into two phases.
In the first, the state had to prove the defendant performed the criminal act. In the second, the defendant, if found guilty of the crimes, had to prove they mentally lacked substantial capacity as a result of mental disease or defect.
Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge David Feiss reviewed the reports of three doctors who examined Parker-Bell since the incident. All three determined Parker-Bell suffered from a mental illness that prevented him from controlling his conduct during the incident and supported the special plea.
Feiss found the defendant not criminally responsible for the crimes for reason of mental disease or defect.
The state asked for Parker-Bell to be committed into Wisconsin Department of Health Services custody for 25 to 30 years. The defense plans to argue that length, so no decision on sentencing was made on Monday.
A review hearing is scheduled for June 5.
Here's what happened that day at the police station
Parker-Bell fired a .40 caliber semiautomatic pistol three times inside the District Five precinct police station, located at 2920 Vel R. Phillips Ave., after he asked an officer at the front counter for information relating to Keishon Thomas, the complaint said.
Thomas, 20, died in a holding cell at the same facility two days earlier. One person was injured in the shooting.
Parker-Bell ran from the station after the shooting and was later shot and injured by police several blocks away.
Parker-Bell told police at the time he had been experiencing mental health issues as a result of several hardships in his life — Thomas’ death being one of them, according to the complaint.
Two Milwaukee Police Department officers have been charged with felonies rin connection with Thomas' death. Officers Donald Krueger and Marco Lopez face separate felony charges for the abuse of Thomas while he was held in custody and misconduct in public office by making a false entry, respectively.
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Man pleads guilty to shooting inside Milwaukee police station
