6 people found dead in home near North 21st and West Wright streets in Milwaukee; police investigating deaths as homicides

An additional victim was reported Monday as Milwaukee police investigate the deaths of six people found Sunday near North 21st and West Wright streets.

The deaths are being investigated as homicides, the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner's office said Sunday evening.

Around 3:45 p.m. Sunday, Milwaukee Police responded to the 2500 block of North 21st Street to assist with a welfare check at a residence, Assistant Chief Paul Formolo of the Milwaukee Police Department said during a Sunday evening news conference.

"Citizens of our community had concerns with the occupants that resided there," Formolo said. "It's a normal call for us to respond to. We do it all the time."

After entering the residence, four men and one woman were found dead. A sixth fatality was reported by the medical examiner on Monday.

The victims have not been identified but the ages of three of the male victims are 31, 42 and 43, according to online data from the medical examiner's office.

The motive and information regarding any suspects is unknown at this time, Formolo said.

"There is no information to suggest that there is a threat to the community," he said.

“The murders discovered today on a residential block in the heart of our city are horrific," Acting Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson said in a statement Sunday night. "First, I offer my condolences to the families and friends of the victims. Whatever the circumstances, we must share the grief of those who have lost loved ones."

“It is important not to feel numbed by the ongoing violence in our community," the statement continued. "A horrible crime has again occurred, and it is not a movie or a fictional account. These victims died in our city, in one of our neighborhoods."

Johnson said efforts to reduce violence will continue, and will be achieved through strengthened and improved law enforcement, community intervention and a renewed commitment to prevention.

"We can never accept murderous violence as routine, and we must together recommit ourselves to our shared responsibility to find solutions and make our city safer," he said.

"This is ridiculous," Arnitta Holliman, director of Milwaukee's Office of Violence Prevention, said at the news conference. "I'm sorry, I don't know a better word to say. The community is tired. We are tired of seeing people's lives snuffed out too soon in preventable situations. This is absolutely preventable. Any of the gun violence that we're seeing is preventable. And we cannot continue this same trajectory that we've seen for the last two years. That means each and every one of us has to step up, speak up, stand up, do something to change the course of what's happening in our community."

She said if you know someone who may be on the verge of committing an act of gun violence, stop them or reach out for help.

"We are sick and tired of it," she said. "And we as a community, that means all of us, have to be sick and tired of it enough that we step up and do something."

Autopsies will be performed Monday, the medical examiner's office said.

Anyone with information regarding the killings is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 414-224-TIPS or MPD at 414-935-7360.

“We hope that person is caught or turns himself in," Milwaukee activist Vaun Mayes said at the scene. "We will do what we do, in collaboration with the Office of Violence Prevention and 414 Life to help try to deter or cease, interrupt some of this violence as much as we can.”

This weekend's death investigations in Milwaukee County included eight homicides, eight probable overdoses, five from COVID-19 and one suicide, according to a tweet from the medical examiner's office. Autopsies are scheduled for Monday.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Six people found dead in homicides at 21st and Wright in Milwaukee