A Bartow County school bus driver northwest of the Atlanta metro area is facing multiple charges after allegedly operating a school bus while under the influence with students on board, reported Fox 5.
According to the news report, 51-year-old Lori Hagaman was charged with driving a school bus under the influence and several counts of reckless conduct. She was released from jail Monday.
Authorities say two deputies stopped the school bus on U.S. 411 near the Burnt Hickory Road Connector after receiving a report that the vehicle was swerving and the driver appeared unresponsive. Upon exiting the bus, Hagaman was observed staggering and struggling with navigating the bus stairwell. Deputies noted she had slurred speech and reportedly denied both alcohol consumption and any medical issues.
During the investigation, deputies reportedly found an insulated cup in the driver’s cupholder that appeared to contain an alcoholic beverage. A concerned parent also told investigators her 9-year-old daughter suspected the driver had been intoxicated in the past, citing instances of missed bus stops and incorrect student drop-offs.
The Bartow County School System confirmed via the article that no students were injured during the incident. Officials stated that Hagaman has been removed from her assigned route pending further investigation.
The Oconomowoc Police Department (Photo by Isiah Holmes/Wisconsin Examiner)
Earlier this summer, the city of Oconomowoc sought to purchase new protective gear for its police officers by reaching out directly to local residents with a private fundraiser, an approach that has grown in popularity among police departments in recent years.
“Oconomowoc is a great place,” Kevin Ellis, an alderman on the Common Council and a member of the private fundraising committee, told Wisconsin Examiner. “It’s a great city. It’s one that I’m glad that I found 21 years ago.”
While Oconomowoc — the city’s name is derived from a Potawatomi word meaning “where the waters meet” — isn’t known for gun violence, a member of the city’s fundraising team compared the purchase of the gear to buying insurance. During an incident in July, for example, a Shorewood officer’s ballistic vest reportedly prevented serious injury by gunfire.
The Wisconsin Examiner’s Criminal Justice Reporting Project shines a light on incarceration, law enforcement and criminal justice issues with support from the Public Welfare Foundation.
By the end of its fundraiser, Oconomowoc’s police department had far exceeded its $40,000 goal, according to a column in the Oconomowoc Enterprise by council president Matt Rosek.
While the new body armor has the potential to be lifesaving, some remarks about crime and unrest made by supporters of the fundraiser weren’t supported by data, records and past reporting reviewed by the Examiner.
Oconomowoc gun crime claims lack data support
Oconomowoc city officials announced their ambitions to augment protection for officers by fundraising for rifle-rated body armor inserts and pistol-rated ballistic helmets in early June. According to a budget priorities memo in May, Police Chief James Pfister said that with the right equipment, Oconomowoc officers can confidently respond to dangerous situations involving an active assailant. Officers could quickly assist victims, perform life-saving evacuations and effectively manage threats, “ultimately saving lives and reducing risks.”
As the fundraiser was announced, however, members of the public took to social media to question the department’s efforts on Facebook.
“I think more people would be happy to donate to the cause if we could have some background information,” one commenter, Morgan Murphy, wrote in a June 5 post. She asked what situations call for the new gear and how frequently those situations arise.
“If it’s a common occurrence shouldn’t there already be some on hand?” Murphy posted, wondering whether concern about such situations is increasing, and if the public should be concerned.
City officials described the present moment as a “time of continued unrest and potential for escalated violence in our community and those around us” in a letter to potential donors, which the police department provided to the Examiner in June.
Downtown Oconomowoc, WI. (Photo by Isiah Holmes/Wisconsin Examiner)
“Over the last five years, communities have seen a variety of incidents of unrest,” said Lou Kowieski, fundraising team member and former council president, when asked about the letter. He said he didn’t know if this would happen again, but that he wants the police department to be prepared.
In a separate letter posted to Facebook, Police Chief James Pfister said the department had been responding to more gun-related calls over the past three years and that this was “a stark reminder of the growing challenges our officers face in keeping our community safe.”
Wisconsin Examiner reviewed gun call data from the department’s dispatch center for June 2022 to June 2025, which did not show a definite increase in calls involving a gun. The number of “10-32” calls — police shorthand for gun-related calls — stayed the same from June 2022 to June 2025 at just under 40 calls or less. In order to give a more complete picture, the police department also provided data on all calls in which the word “gun” was mentioned, which rose slightly from 108 calls annually in the 2022-2024 years, to 119 in 2025. It is not known whether a gun was found at the scene in any of these calls. Neither data set includes information on the types of guns referenced in the calls.
Oconomowoc PD Captain Brad Timm said Pfister’s statement referred to the chief’s personal knowledge of “major gun calls specially from Target and Roundy’s,” and Timm said the equipment would be used for those types of calls.
A shooting at the Roundy’s distribution center in Oconomowoc left the shooter and two co-workers dead in 2021. In a separate incident, a Milwaukee man was charged with attempted first-degree intentional homicide earlier this year. The man reportedly pulled a gun out of his pocket and pointed it at a co-worker and a security guard at the Target warehouse in Oconomowoc, later telling police that he pulled the trigger and his gun jammed.
Wisconsin Examiner also requested crime data from the police department for June 2020 to June 2025. As requested, the data appears to break down reported crimes into 13-month periods, from the beginning of June of each year through June of the following year.
The department reported more aggravated assaults recently, up from two in 2022-2023 to five in 2024-2025. An aggravated assaultinvolves either the offender using a weapon, the offender displaying a weapon in a threatening way or the victim suffering obvious severe or aggravated bodily injury. It was unclear how many of those assaults involved a firearm. The department reported seven aggravated assaults in 2020-2021.
The most recent data reported fewer weapon law violations than in past years. The weapon law violation definition involves the offender breaking a rule relating to a deadly weapon, such as a rule about the possession, manufacture or use of the weapon. The department’s data reported no murders or non-negligent manslaughters after two incidents that occurred in June 2020-June 2021.
A graph depicting forms of violent crime logged by the Oconomowoc Police Department over given time periods. (Created by Isiah Holmes/Wisconsin Examiner)
According to the Wisconsin Department of Justice, if a murder or assault involved a deadly weapon, it could also be counted as a weapon law violation. However, a murder, for example, would not be also counted as an aggravated assault.
By comparison the police department for Milwaukee, Wisconsin’s most populous city, reported 132 homicide offenses in 2024 and has seen multiple gun-related officer deaths since 2018. The Milwaukee Police Department declined to provide the rating for officers’ standard body armor due to security concerns.
Ricky Burems, who retired from the Milwaukee Police Department in 2014 with 32 years of experience, told the Examiner over text message that he used a vest that was resistant to AR-15 rounds.
“A vest doesn’t make you impervious to gunfire,” wrote Burems, who worked as a plain-clothes drug unit officer and as a homicide detective. “It really hurts to get shot even if you’re wearing a vest. I recall a couple of officers who were killed when bullets went between the panels of their vests. But vests definitely help.”
Oconomowoc’s Capt. Brad Timm said the rifle plate inserts the city was fundraising for are rifle rated, while the ballistic helmets are pistol rated.
In July, Timm said that most officers had a level-two bulletproof vest that protects against pistol-caliber firearms. He said at the time that when officers are hired, they are given a level-two vest, and the cost of more resistant level-three body armor would be the officer’s responsibility. Police departments in Madison and Milwaukee also allow officers to purchase more protective equipment on their own.
Why did Oconomowoc pursue the gear this summer?
Wisconsin Examiner asked Timm what led to the fundraising push for more protective gear this summer. Timm said that “it was brought up to better equip our officers with higher rated ballistic head protection and vests, essential gear for high-risk situations.”
In his June 5 column Rosek, the Common Council president who also recently announced he is running for mayor, said the fundraiser’s goal was to protect officers from high-power, large caliber rifles. While Oconomowoc is a safe place to live, there had been “several significant tactical situations over the last several years,” he wrote.
Rosek mentioned a bank robbery, a shooting at a Kroger’s, and a shooting incident on the overpass at Interstate 94 and Highway 67. Since Roundy’s is a subsidiary of Kroger’s, Rosek, who did not respond to the Examiner’s requests for comment, might have been referencing the 2021 shooting at the Roundy’s distribution center. Waukesha County court records show that the bank robbery incident involved suspects with pistols, which the department’s standard body armor should be rated to withstand.
Mural art in Oconomowoc, WI. (Photo by Isiah Holmes/Wisconsin Examiner)
In the May 6 budget memo, Pfister said that “recent events, like those at the Oconomowoc industrial facilities, sadly underscore the urgent need for advanced gear to keep our officers safe.”
While the Target distribution center incident took place earlier this year, it appears the bank robbery, overpass shooting and Roundy’s shooting occurred prior to 2022. Lou Kowieski, a fundraising team member and former council president, told the Examiner that he didn’t think there was a correlation between the incidents mentioned by Rosek and the police department’s request for protective equipment. Kowieski said he thinks “those incidents help provide, unfortunately, the real-world scenarios of where those are needed.”
Kowieski also referenced the July shooting that injured a Shorewood officer, and said that “in general, not just in Oconomowoc but in multiple communities, that threat level of use of firearm power is there.”
“You’re going to get insurance for tornadoes,” he said. “That doesn’t mean that you’re going to have a tornado tomorrow. But if it happens, you need to make sure you’re covered.”
Timm was unable to give an exact number of the calls or incidents the department had responded to that involved a type of firearm their current gear wasn’t rated for, and for which the new gear would have provided sufficient protection. Asked whether or not he could say this type of situation had occurred at all in the last several years, Timm only replied “Yes.”
Supporters cite mutual aid, 2020 unrest and protests
Rosek’s column also mentioned the potential for Oconomowoc officers to be deployed outside of Oconomowoc, without mentioning any specific city or situation.
“We also know that our police officers will respond to situations outside of our community if called upon,” Rosek wrote. “Violent situations put our officers at greater risk than we have seen before.”
Asked if Oconomowoc has sent officers to assist other communities in need of additional officers for an incident in the last several years, Timm replied “Yes.”
Kowieski said that not too long ago, officers from Oconomowoc helped support situations in other communities, such as Wauwatosa, Racine and Kenosha “when the social unrest became a challenge for all police departments.” Kowieski said this connects to the fundraiser because it helps prepare the department to provide mutual aid when requested by other communities in various scenarios, including civil unrest or school shooters.
Oconomowoc Police Department (Photo by Isiah Holmes/Wisconsin Examiner)
Wisconsin Examiner reached out to the Wauwatosa Police Department about whether OPD had assisted them since 2020. A spokesperson said that to the contrary, Wauwatosa officers assisted OPD in 2021 during an incident at Roundy’s, but that there are no records showing Oconomowoc officers assisting during situations in Wauwatosa.
If concern about protests and unrest are causing the city to procure the equipment, John Norcross, who lives in the nearby village of Lac La Belle, thinks “we ought to have a public conversation about that.”
A community Facebook page, “Oconomowoc Supports Our First Responders,” also suggested the gear would help keep officers safe during protests and unrest, specifically mentioning civil unrest that took place in Kenosha during a summer of nationwide protests over police violence and misconduct. The post mentioned Black Lives Matter protests organized in Oconomowoc’s Fowler Park and stated that “5 years ago this summer the threads of our community fabric were at a breaking point.”
Norcross thinks the reference to the Black Lives Matter protest feeds an unfounded fear that any kind of protest has the potential to create social unrest.
“I was at the BLM protest in Oconomowoc,” Norcross said. “There was absolutely no fear, no fear of any social unrest from that. But I do sense that [there is] rhetoric of using Kenosha for years as a keyword for, ‘Hey, we need to be careful. We need to be armed. It could happen at any moment.’”
Black Lives Matter protester in Oconomowoc’s Fowler Park on June 6, 2020 | Photo courtesy John Norcross
Mutual aid documents from the curfews in Kenosha and Wauwatosa do not list the Oconomowoc Police Department. Although records from Wauwatosa documented a single Oconomowoc police captain as being present in or around the command center, it does not appear that the department had an on-the-ground presence during Wauwatosa’s curfew.
Two people were killed and another severely injured in Kenosha after heavily armed teenager Kyle Rittenhouse fired an AR-15 style rifle at protesters. No gun violence or deaths occurred during the curfews in Wauwatosa or Milwaukee. (Rittenhouse was acquitted of charges related to the shootings in a jury trial.)
Fundraisers ‘freed up’ tax dollars for other needs
In a column on Aug. 28, Rosek wrote that he was asked why the city hadn’t added the purchase of body armor to the 2026 budget.
Rosek’s June column praised the police department for providing “24/7 patrolling,” a citizen’s academy, and other services. “There is no question we are a safer community because of their commitment to our citizens,” he wrote. “Our police department is completely funded by our property tax dollars and is the largest single spend we have in the annual budget.”
Rosek wrote about previous fundraising, stating that “most of the funding for the body cameras ($150,000) and for the K-9, Gabo, ($125,000) was privately fundraised.”
In memos from May 2025, where various parts of the Oconomowoc city government shared budget priorities, the police department included about $37,000 in body armor inserts and ballistic helmets.
Rosek’s column, published a month later, said that the department is funded by a tax levy which comes with restrictions. Sometimes, this means “certain initiatives need some help to get over the finish line,” he wrote.
Black Lives Matter protest in Oconomowoc’s Fowler Park on June 6, 2020 | Photo courtesy John Norcross
But when Wisconsin Examiner asked Oconomowoc police captain Brad Timm in July if he believed the city would still buy the equipment if it could not fundraise in the community, he said yes. Community fundraising is the quickest way to obtain the equipment, Timm said, and without a fundraiser the equipment would have been requested in the 2026 budget.
The police department didn’t respond to some of the Examiner’s questions, including whether donors were informed that the city could afford to purchase the body armor inserts and ballistic helmets through the budget, and that private fundraising was chosen because it was quicker.
Jerry Wille of the Oconomowoc Lions Club, which donated $10,000 to the fundraiser, said that “budgets are very difficult in today’s world. So we don’t really worry about that. We know if there’s a need, as a Lion we’re there to help.”
Timm said he believed the city would have made the body camera purchase without the donations from the community, but was unsure about the K-9. He said that the body camera and K-9 fundraisers freed up taxpayer money for other city budget items.
In his column on Aug. 28, Rosek wrote that the city could have funded the protective gear, the body cameras and the K-9 officer through the budget, but that fundraising for one-off purchases “frees up more tax dollars to commit to other critical needs.”
Part of a trend
Oconomowoc’s use of donations when purchasing protective gear for law enforcement is not unique. In 2018, the Green Bay Press Gazette reported that 50 law enforcement officers in Oconto County had gear providing protection from long guns, using donations from businesses, organizations and individuals.
Large donations were also made by the Green Bay Packers and PESI, Inc. toward body cameras and other equipment for the Green Bay Police Department and for Eau Claire police officers and sheriff’s deputies.
Fundraisers also help build relationships between the community and the police, said Lou Kowieski, the fundraising team member and former council president. “You can’t put a value on what the relationship between a community and a police department is,” Kowieski said. In communities without that strong bond, “You feel less safe living in those communities,” he said. “In Oconomowoc, we’re very fortunate and very blessed to have a strong sense of community that is outwardly and proudly supporting our police department and all of our first responders.”
A park near a lake in Oconomowoc. (Photo courtesy of Heather R.)
In a statement to Wisconsin Examiner, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Wisconsin highlighted issues with police fundraisers for equipment.
“When police acquire new tools through private funding, it raises serious transparency and oversight concerns,” the ACLU stated. “Equipment purchased with private donations receives less scrutiny and examination into whether that technology is appropriate and necessary in a community. Private donations bypass public discussion and necessary public notification about why law enforcement needs the tools and how they will be used.”
The ACLU statement added that, “with the rapid rise of new, high-tech police and surveillance technologies, it’s never been more critical for people to know how they’re being policed. However, when private donors pay for that equipment, the public is completely cut out of the process. Police should be beholden to the communities they are sworn to serve and protect, not the interests of private donors who may pledge the money with strings attached.”
With the exception of Kevin Ellis, members of the Oconomowoc Common Council did not comment for this article.
As of Aug. 28, the fundraiser had raised $53,000, with additional funds still coming in. The team said it plans to use the extra funds to equip community resource officers.
Rosek said the next fundraising event will be for Western Lakes Fire Department, which he said has critical needs in the next year. In 2022, seven Waukesha County communities considered a referendum that called for nearly doubling the annual budget for the Western Lakes Fire District. The referendum failed, but the city of Oconomowoc was one of the two municipalities where voters supported it.
A Massachusetts man who worked as a school bus monitor in Rhode Island is facing multiple child molestation charges following a grand jury indictment and arraignment, reported Boston News.
Kevin P. Langlois, 58, of Rehoboth, Massachusetts, was reportedly indicted and arraigned Sept. 4 on several charges, including three counts of second-degree child molestation, one count of indecent solicitation of a child, one count of simple assault and one count of indecent exposure.
Authorities say via the news report that the alleged incidents occurred while Langlois was employed by Ocean State Transit and assigned to transport children for the Barrington Public Schools in Rhode Island. The victims were two girls between the ages of 5 and 12.
According to the article, police began investigating after receiving reports of inappropriate behavior involving Langlois while he was supervising children on school buses. Details of the investigation have not been fully disclosed, but officials confirmed that the charges stem from incidents that allegedly occurred during his duties as a bus monitor.
According to the news report, Langlois is currently out on bail. It is unclear whether he has retained legal counsel. The case will proceed through the Rhode Island judicial system, and authorities are urging anyone with additional information to come forward. Barrington Public Schools has not yet commented on the case but is expected to review transportation policies in the wake of the allegations. The investigation is ongoing.
A 19-year-old man has been arrested after authorities say he illegally passed a stopped school bus and struck a child in a St. Tammany Parish neighborhood, reported Fox 8.
The incident reportedly occurred Aug. 25 in the Tall Timbers subdivision of Mandeville, Louisiana, located on the northern bank of Lake Pontchartrain. The St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office said via the article the school bus was stopped with its lights flashing and stop sign extended as children were being dropped off.
As one child crossed the street, a pickup truck driver allegedly ignored the stopped bus and struck the girl. She suffered minor injuries to her arm, authorities said.
Following a public appeal for help identifying the driver, the Sheriff’s office noted via the news report it received several tips after releasing surveillance images of the truck on social media. On Aug. 26, deputies arrested Mario Avila, 19, in connection with the incident.
According to the news report, Avila was booked into the St. Tammany Parish Correctional Center on multiple charges, including hit-and-run, reckless operation of a motor vehicle, driving under suspension with a prior DWI, and unlawfully overtaking a stopped school bus.
Sheriff Randy Smith reportedly issued a warning to motorists, emphasizing the dangers of passing school buses when children are present.
“This is a reminder to all drivers, stop means stop,” Smith said. “Passing a stopped school bus is not only illegal, it puts children’s lives at risk.” The child involved in the incident is expected to make a full recovery.
National Guard troops, like those President Donald Trump is using to crack down on big-city crime, generally are not trained in law enforcement.
Trump sent National Guard troops to Washington, D.C., in August as a crackdown. The Milwaukee police union president said he might ask Trump to send troops to Milwaukee.
D.C. police get 21 modules of criminal procedure training, and Guard members get none, an analysis found.
The Guard’s primary law enforcement training is crowd control, said the analysis’ co-author, Mark Cancian of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
U.S. Naval War College professor Lindsay Cohn, a civil-military relations expert, said most Guard members are not trained in law enforcement, but some are spot-trained.
Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, head of the Wisconsin National Guard, said Guard members are the “wrong people” to fight crime because they’re not trained police officers.
This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
A disturbing incident on an Orleans Parish school bus in Louisiana has left a longtime school bus monitor hospitalized with multiple injuries after she was allegedly attacked by a high school student and the student’s mother, reported News Channel 10.
The incident reportedly occurred Aug. 21 and was caught on video, involving a McDonogh 35 High School student and her mother physically assaulting school bus monitor Tamika Jackson. The footage aired by News Channel 10 indicates the mother striking Jackson and then her daughter joining the violent altercation.
Jackson’s husband, Johnny Jackson told reporters his wife was transported to the emergency room with severe injuries, including bite marks on her face and thumbs, scratches and a deep gash across her face.
“They pulled her hair out. They bit her in her face, on her lips, on her thumbs,” he said.
Images shown by News Channel 10 support his descriptions of the injuries.
According to the article, Johnny Jackson said the confrontation began after his wife instructed the student not to sit in the last two rows of the bus, an area she suspected students had been using inappropriately, potentially to perform lewd acts. The student, who was not identified in this writing, allegedly called her mother, who then boarded the bus at confronted Jackson, resulting in the violent assault.
Despite her injuries and being on duty at the time, Jackson was reportedly issued a Municipal Court summons by the New Orleans Police Department for disturbing the peace.
Her husband expressed outrage, saying, “It’s insane knowing my wife was at work when this happened, and yet she’s being treated like she was part of a fight.”
NOPD has not filed a police report at this time, citing a lack of video evidence. Officers reportedly told the family they are treating the matter as a “routine fight” until the footage is reviewed.
In response to the incident, InspireNOLA Charter Schools, which oversees McDonogh 35, stated it is conducting an active investigation and emphasized that the safety of students and staff is a top priority. Community members and staff have called for a thorough investigation and accountability following the attack.
A 13-year-old boy is recovering in the hospital with serious injuries after being struck by a car in a hit-and-run crash moments after stepping off a school bus in the south Las Vegas Valley, reported Fox 5.
The incident happened Aug. 20 just before 4:30 p.m. Las Vegas Metro Police said the article that the teen had just exited a school bus and was crossing the street when he was hit by a vehicle driven by 27-year-old Yarla Valeriano-Perez.
Police added Valeriano-Perez initially fled the scene, abandoning her vehicle nearby. She later returned and cooperated with investigators. Impairment was not believed to be a factor in the crash.
Authorities reportedly confirmed that the school bus had its lights flashing at the time, signaling that children were being dropped off. Witnesses reported seeing the teen thrown approximately eight feet into the air upon impact.
Valeriano-Perez was reportedly taken into custody and now faces multiple charges, including felony hit-and-run and reckless driving, along with a misdemeanor count for illegally passing a school bus displaying active signals.
According to the news report, she appeared in court last Thursday, where prosecutors emphasized the severity of the incident, noting that she failed to stop despite visible school bus warnings. Her defense attorneys asked the court for leniency as she has no prior criminal record.
The judge reportedly set bail at $300,000 with a condition that she be prohibited from driving. Valeriano-Perez was scheduled to appear in court again on Tuesday.
The teen’s current condition has not been publicly disclosed, but police described his injuries as “substantial.” The investigation is ongoing.
A local school bus driver has been arrested on multiple felony charges involving child sexual exploitation and child endangerment, following an investigation led by the Idaho Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Unit, reported 2 Idaho News.
According to the Idaho Attorney General’s Office via the article, Brian Hendricks was taken into custody on Aug. 7 and now faces seven counts of possession of child sexual exploitation material. The Boise Police Department charged both Hendricks and his partner Rochelle Hendricks with four counts each of felony injury to a child, as well as misdemeanor charges for dog nuisance and general animal nuisance.
According to the news report, Attorney General Raul Labrador praised the collaborative law enforcement effort, stating, “Protecting the people of Idaho is my office’s top priority. I thank the Boise Police Department for their partnership and teamwork in serving this search warrant and helping to remove the children that were in the home,” he continued. “We will continue to diligently work with our law enforcement partners across the state to protect Idaho families as children return to school this fall.”
The arrest reportedly followed a search warrant executed at Hendricks’ residence, where officers discovered several children living in what authorities described as unsafe and uninhabitable conditions. Police reported that the children were in imminent danger and were promptly removed from the home. Multiple animals were also seized due to concerns over neglect and nuisance conditions.
Boise Police Department units, including the Neighborhood Contact Unit, School Resource Officers and patrol officers reportedly assisted the ICAC team in the arrest and investigation. Boise Police Lieutenant Tim Brady emphasized the importance of a unified response.
“The Boise Police Department extends its sincere gratitude to our law enforcement partners and the dedicated professionals who worked on this significant investigation,” he said via the article. “This collective effort was instrumental in ensuring the safety and well-being of all involved in this case. We remain steadfast in our dedication to working together to protect and serve the most vulnerable members of our community.”
It is unclear if Hendricks was immediately fired for his position as a bus driver. At this stage of the investigation, authorities say there is no evidence of any local victims, but they encourage anyone with relevant information to contact local police. The case remains ongoing.
Micah Laureano with his mother, Phyllis, who filed a lawsuit after Micah's death | Photo courtesy Phyllis Laureno
Months after 19 year-old Micah Laureano was killed by his cellmate at Green Bay Correctional Institution, Laureano’s mother filed a lawsuit against officials in the Wisconsin Department of Corrections.
The Wisconsin Examiner’s Criminal Justice Reporting Project shines a light on incarceration, law enforcement and criminal justice issues with support from the Public Welfare Foundation.
On Friday, Secretary Jared Hoy and the warden of GBCI, Christopher Stevens, denied violating any of Laureano’s rights and engaging in any unlawful actions.
They denied that the plaintiff, Phyllis Laureano, “is entitled to any of the relief that she seeks” and called for the complaint to be dismissed.
The lawsuit alleged that “defendants’ willful and deliberate indifference to Mr. Laureano’s safety resulted in him being murdered by his cellmate.” It alleged that “based on Defendants’ actions, Mr. Laureano suffered cruel and unusual punishment when Defendants failed to protect him from harm.”
The lawsuit alleged that “defendants failed to protect Mr. Laureano when they placed a particularly aggressive, violent, and discriminatory inmate with a history of severe physical assault and mental health issues” in a cell with him.
Vogel reportedly said he attacked Laureano because he was Black and gay, according to a report the Examiner received from the Brown County Sheriff’s Office.
According to the report, Vogel had been issued conduct reports dated March 5 and 6, 2024, for language in inmate complaints and interview requests.
The complaints reportedly contained “obscene, profane, abusive and threatening language” and swastika symbols. According to the report, Vogel wrote “‘you all need and deserve Death! Hail Hitler!’” and mentioned the Aryan Brotherhood and “‘White Power (WLM).’”
The Post-Crescent reported that in May 2024, a judge and a prosecutor in Manitowoc County received death threats in the mail from Vogel, containing violent language detailing torture and cannibalism.
In an article about Laureano’s death at GBCI in August, the Examiner reported that court records showed Vogel had been found guilty of attempted first-degree intentional homicide, and Laureano had been found guilty of taking and driving a vehicle without consent and as party to a crime for substantial battery intending bodily harm, robbery with use of force and first-degree recklessly endangering safety.
A telephone scheduling conference will take place at 9:20 a.m. on Sept. 11.
President Donald Trump announces a "crime emergency" in Washington, D.C., during a White House press conference on Aug. 11, 2025. Standing behind Trump are, from left to right, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel and U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro. (Image via White House livestream)
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump asserted control Monday of the District of Columbia police force and mobilized 800 National Guard troops in the nation’s capital under what he declared a “crime emergency.”
Trump took the step despite a three-decade low in violent crime in Washington, D.C., while warning he may pursue similar action in other Democratic-led cities that he sees as having “totally out of control” crime.
Trump at a press conference said that he hopes other Democratic-led cities are watching because Monday’s actions in the district are just the beginning.
“We’re starting very strongly with D.C.,” Trump said.
The president placed the Metropolitan Police Department of roughly 3,400 officers under federal control, citing the district’s Home Rule Act that allows for the federal takeover until an emergency is declared over, or 30 days after the declaration. Congress can also authorize the extension.
“We’re going to take our capital back,” Trump said.
The mayor of the district, Muriel Bowser, called Monday’s action “unsettling and unprecedented.” She added that she was not informed by the president that the district’s police force would be taken over.
DOGE staffer hurt
The escalation of federal control came after a former U.S. Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, official was injured in an attempted carjacking incident around 3 a.m. Eastern near the district neighborhood of Logan Circle. Two Maryland teenagers were arrested on charges of unarmed carjacking in connection with the incident.
The president said he is prepared to send in more National Guard “if needed,” and that he will handle the city the same way he has handled immigration at the southern border. The Trump administration has been carrying out a campaign of mass deportations.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said during the press conference that members of the National Guard will be “flowing into” the district sometime this week.
Local officials in the district protested Trump’s move. D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb, an elected official, wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that the Trump administration’s “actions are unprecedented, unnecessary, and unlawful.”
“There is no crime emergency in the District of Columbia. Violent crime in DC reached historic 30-year lows last year, and is down another 26% so far this year,” Schwalb said.
“We are considering all of our options and will do what is necessary to protect the rights and safety of District residents,” he continued.
Trump at the press conference said that he’s also directed officials to clear out encampments of homeless people in the district, but did not detail where those people would be moved.
Hundreds of federal law enforcement officers, representing agencies from the Drug Enforcement Agency to the Interior Department, were deployed across the city Saturday and Sunday.
Los Angeles and beyond
The president’s crackdown in the district occurred after a federal appeals court this summer temporarily approved Trump’s move to take control of the California National Guard from Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom for the purpose of quelling protests over the administration’s aggressive immigration raids.
The president Monday slammed several major Democratic cities – Baltimore, Chicago, New York City and Oakland – and inaccurately claimed they had the highest murder rates.
Trump said that he hopes other cities are “watching us today.”
“Maybe they’ll self clean up and maybe they’ll self do this and get rid of the cashless bail thing and all of the things that caused the problem,” the president said.
Trump pointed at Chicago, criticizing Mayor Brandon Johnson and Illinois Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker.
“I understand he wants to be president,” Trump said of Pritzker, before taking a shot at the governor’s personal appearance. “I noticed he lost a little weight so maybe he has a chance.”
The top Republican on the U.S. House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which has jurisdiction over the district, praised Trump’s decision to deploy the National Guard and take over the police department.
“President Trump is rightly using executive power to take bold and necessary action to crack down on crime and restore law and order in Washington, D.C.,” Rep. James Comer, Republican of Kentucky, said in a statement.
Comer added that the committee next month will hold a hearing with Schwalb, D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson and Mayor Muriel Bowser.
While state governors have control over their National Guards, the president has control over the National Guard members in the district. The National Guard does not have arresting authority, under the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, which generally bars the use of the military for domestic law enforcement purposes.
During Trump’s first term, he deployed roughly 5,000 National Guard on Black Lives Matter protesters in the district after the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis in 2020.
And despite requests from congressional leaders, Trump notably delayed activating National Guard members during the 2021 insurrection on the U.S. Capitol, when the president’s supporters tried to subvert the certification of the 2020 presidential election.
In one of Trump’s first actions on his inauguration day in January, he pardoned hundreds of Jan. 6 rioters who were charged by the Department of Justice for their involvement in the insurrection.
Putin meeting
In a question-and-answer session after announcing the National Guard deployment, Trump told reporters he hoped his meeting this week with Russian President Vladimir Putin would help put that country on a path to peace with Ukraine, which he said would involve each country ceding some territory to the other.
Trump described the Friday summit in Alaska — Putin’s first visit to the U.S. in a decade — as a “feel-out meeting.”
Asked if Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was invited to the summit, Trump said he was “not part of it.” Any framework for peace discussed between Trump and Putin would be relayed to Zelenskyy, he said.
An end to the war would have to come from direct talks between Putin and Zelenskyy, which may or may not ultimately involve the U.S., he said.
“I’m going to put the two of them in a room, and I’ll be there or I won’t be there, and I think it’ll get solved,” he said of Putin and Zelenskyy.
Trump said he was “a little disappointed” that Zelenskyy did not immediately agree to cede territory to Russia, which invaded his country in February 2022. Zelenskyy has repeatedly said giving land to Russia was a nonstarter, including after Trump suggested it over the weekend.
A former school bus driver who worked for multiple districts in the Miami Valley region is facing more than 80 criminal sexual assault charges following a years-long pattern of alleged abuse involving minors, reported by WDTN News.
Montgomery County Prosecutor Mat Heck, Jr. announced that Matthew Hunt, 49, has been indicted on a total of 82 felony counts including rape, unlawful sexual conduct with a minor and various forms of sexual battery. The charges span multiple decades and reportedly involve male students from several school districts where Hunt had been employed as a school bus driver.
Heck said Hunt allegedly lured students by offering them work at his personal business, Hunt Pipe Organ Services, which repairs organs in churches and other venues. Within days of employment, Hunt is accused of making sexual advances toward the teens. Some of the alleged abuse occurred at local churches in Montgomery County, while other incidents reportedly took place in a camper he owned in Lima.
“This activity was ongoing for many years,” Heck said via the article. “We’re also concerned that this activity may have occurred elsewhere, as the defendant has worked as a bus driver in a number of local school districts.”
Hunt reportedly worked as a school bus driver for several local school systems, including Northmont City Schools, Vandalia-Butler Schools, Miami Valley Career Technology Center, St. Christopher School, Tri-County North Schools, Eaton Schools, and Milton-Union Local Schools. His employment across these districts spanned more than two decades, during which the alleged offenses are said to have taken place.
The news report stated that Hunt was reportedly forced to resign from Vandalia-Butler Schools between 2005 and 2009 due to inappropriate contact with a student on a school bus. However, authorities say Hunt answered “no” on his Northmont Schools job application when asked if he had ever been involuntarily terminated from a prior position.
The Northmont City School District reportedly confirmed that Hunt is no longer employed by the district and stated that they are fully cooperating with local law enforcement.
Investigators say via the article that nine individuals have been identified so far as victims. Officials believe there may be more and are encouraging anyone with information to come forward.
Hunt was arrested on July 29 and is currently being held in the Montgomery County Jail on a $1 million bond. He appeared in court again on Aug. 5 where he pleaded not guilty. A judge set bond at $1 million. Hunt is due back in court on Aug. 21 and faces a possible prison sentence of life without parole
A student was stabbed shortly after exiting a school bus last week in Rossville, Maryland, reported Patch News.
According to the news report, Overlea High School administrators informed summer school families that the incident involved a student who had just gotten off bus number 183 on July 24 when the incident occurred.
Police responded to reports of a knife assault near the intersection of Franklin Square Drive and King Avenue. The victim, who was not identified at this writing, was transported to a hospital and is expected to recover.
Authorities have reportedly arrested a minor in connection with the stabbing. The suspect faces charges of first- and second-degree assault and was placed in the care of the Department of Juvenile Services.
In a message to families, Overlea leaders emphasized that student safety remains their highest priority and encouraged parents to reach out with any concerns.
Multiple ambulances and police vehicles respond to a shooting at CrossPointe Community Church in Wayne, Mich., in June. Homicides fell 17% in the first half of 2025 compared with the same period in 2024, according to the Council on Criminal Justice’s latest crime trends report. (Photo by Emily Elconin/Getty Images)
Amid recent political rhetoric about rising crime and violence in American cities, a new analysis shows that violent crime has continued to decline this year.
Homicides and several other serious offenses, including gun assaults and carjackings, dropped during the first half of 2025 across 42 U.S. cities, continuing a downward trend that began in 2022, according to a new crime trends report released Thursday by the nonpartisan think tank Council on Criminal Justice.
Homicides fell 17% in the first half of 2025, compared with the same period in 2024, among the 30 cities that reported homicide data, according to the report.
During that same period, five cities saw increases in homicide — ranging from 6% in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to 39% in Little Rock, Arkansas.
While the report’s authors say the continued drop in violent crime — especially homicides — is encouraging, they note that much of the decline stems from a few major cities with historically high rates, such as Baltimore and St. Louis.
More than half of the cities studied have higher homicide rates than before the COVID-19 pandemic. Overall, though, the analysis found that there were 14% fewer homicides during the first half of 2025 compared to the same period in 2019.
The authors say more research is needed before crediting any specific policy or practice for the continued drop in violent crime.
The group’s findings come as President Donald Trump continues to amplify concerns about crime, at times citing misleading statistics and narratives.
In a Truth Social post earlier this week, Trump claimed that cashless bail — a practice that allows people charged with a crime to be released pretrial without paying money, unless a judge deems them a threat to public safety — were fueling a national crime surge and endangering law enforcement.
He wrote: “Crime in American Cities started to significantly rise when they went to CASHLESS BAIL. The WORST criminals are flooding our streets and endangering even our great law enforcement officers. It is a complete disaster, and must be ended, IMMEDIATELY!”
Some research suggests that setting money bail isn’t effective in ensuring court appearances or improving public safety. Opponents of ending cash bail often raise concerns that released suspects might commit new, potentially more serious crimes. While that is possible in individual cases, studies show that eliminating cash bail does not lead to a widespread increase in crime.
The Truth Social post also marked a sharp shift from Trump’s remarks during a June roundtable with the Fraternal Order of Police, where he claimed the national murder rate had “plummeted by 28%” since he took office — a figure that overstates the decline and overlooks the fact that murder rates began falling well before he returned to office.
According to data consulting firm AH Datalytics, which manages the Real-Time Crime Index — a free tool that collects crime data from more than 400 law enforcement agencies nationwide — the number of homicides between January and May 2025 was 20.3% lower than the same period in 2024.
Similarly, data released in May by the Major Cities Chiefs Association showed that homicides fell roughly 20% in the first quarter of 2025 compared with the first three months of the prior year. The group’s data is based on a survey of 68 major metropolitan police departments nationwide.
Researchers at the Council on Criminal Justice note in their report that it’s difficult to pinpoint a single reason for the drop in homicides, but they note that fewer people appear to be exposed to high-risk situations, such as robberies.
Most major crimes fell in the first half of 2025 compared with the same period last year, according to the council’s report.
Motor vehicle thefts dropped by 25%, while reported gun assaults fell 21%. Robberies, residential and non-residential burglaries, shoplifting, and aggravated and sexual assaults also saw double-digit declines
Drug offenses held steady, while domestic violence reports rose slightly — by about 3%. Carjackings declined 24% and larcenies were down 5%.
Compared with the first half of 2019, before the pandemic and nationwide reckoning over racial justice and policing, overall homicides are down 14%, robberies by 30%, and sexual assaults by 28%.
Still, more than 60% of the cities in the council’s study sample report homicide rates that remain above 2019 levels.
Motor vehicle theft remains the only crime tracked in the report that is still elevated compared to pre-pandemic levels — up 25% since 2019 — although it has declined sharply since 2023.
The council also released another analysis on the lethality of violent crime, showing that while violent incidents have decreased, the share of violence that ends in death has increased significantly. In 1994, there were 2 homicides per 1,000 assaults and about 16 per 1,000 robberies. By 2020, those figures rose to 7.2 and 55.8, respectively.
Stateline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Stateline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Scott S. Greenberger for questions: info@stateline.org.
The National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation Services (NASDPTS) says 39.3 million motorists could be illegally passing school buses nationwide, after updating its National Stop Arm Count survey to correct data reported by California.
The California Department of Education provided new figures to NASDPTS to correct the number of driver-side and student loading-door-side illegal passes by motorists at school bus stops. As a result, NASDPTS extrapolated a decrease in the number of potential violations based on a 180-day school year and nationwide, further indicating that while still a major issue illegal passing rates improved during the 2024-2025 school year.
NASDPTS announced its 13th National Stop Arm Violation Count, a one-day snapshot of motorists illegally passing stopped school buses while loading or unloading students during the 2024-2025 school year, at National School Transportation Association Annual Meeting and Convention Tuesday in Boston, Massachusetts. Earlier this year, California joined 35 other states and the District of Columbia in voluntary one-day counts of motorists passing the federally mandated stop arm and flashing red lights at school bus stops while children are loading or unloading.
Initially, the NASDPTS report indicated that the 1,943 participating school bus drivers in California — accounting for approximately 8 percent of the 21,668 school buses in operation each school day, according to the California Department of Education’s Office of School Transportation — observed 10,381 violations, and that all occurred on the right-side of the school buses where students load and exit.
California clarified Thursday that a total of 8,231 violations of the school bus stop arm and red lights were reported, with 3,881 occurring from the front of the bus and 4,350 from the rear. None occurred on the right side where the loading door is located, Anna Borges, supervisor the Office of Student Transportation, told School Transportation News.
California is also the only state to require all kindergarten through eighth grade students be escorted by their drivers, when the students must cross the street to and from the school bus to get to or from their homes. In these instances, the Office of Student Transportation clarified that 136 illegal passes were observed, where the motorist or motorist approached the school bus from the front or as oncoming traffic, during afternoon routes. Fifty-nine motorists passed during morning routes and dight during mid-day routes. Motorists passed from the rear of the school bus during escorted routes 104 times in the afternoon, 32 times in the morning, and 10 times at mid-day.
Illegal passes spiked on non-escorted routes, a total of 7,882 instances, or nearly 96 percent of the total observations. This included students who don’t need to cross the street and students in grades 9 through 12.
A total of 1,711 school buses operated by 149 of the California’s 950 school districts that provide home-to-school transportation and 11 private carriers participated in the April 29 count.
With the correction, NASPDTS said 218,000 illegal passing incidents report indicates 114,471 school bus drivers, or 31 percent of the nation’s total, reported a total of 69,408 vehicles passed their buses illegally. Adjusting to account for 100 percent all school bus drivers in the U.S., NASDPTS said over 218,000 illegal passing violations could occur on one day, a decrease of 7,000 based on the initial sample previously reported. NASDTPS also extrapolates 1.3 million fewer incidents could occur during a 180-day school year across all 50 states, 39.3 million compared to the original estimate of 40.6 million. While still high, the new figure represents 13-percent fewer illegal passes than the 45.2 million reported for the 2023-2024 school year.
“Even with these corrected numbers the illegal passing of stopped school buses continues to be the greatest safety danger to children,” said NASDPTS President Mike Stier. ”Regardless of the number, 39.3 million violations is simply too many. We continue to encourage each state to raise awareness on this important safety issue and to do everything possible to ensure motorists put the safety of school children first.”
Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, school districts nationwide saw the number of illegal passings spike. NASDPTS had previously cited 41.8 million violations occurring using data from the 2019 and 2022 surveys, as the survey was suspended for two years during the height of COVID, when schools nationwide closed their doors and few school buses were on route. The survey returned in 2022.
Meanwhile, the most recent survey indicated 80 percent of the reported illegal passes occurred on the left side of the stopped school bus. More notably, that left almost 20 occurring on the right side of the bus, where the loading doors are located and where students enter and exit.
According to the NASDPTS update, over 50 percent of the observed illegal passes, 33,914 instances, occurred during afternoon routes. About 46 percent, or 31,127 violations, occurred in the morning and 2,217 violations, over 3 percent, occurred during midday routes. Sixty-nine percent of the observed violations, 39,442, were committed by motorists in oncoming vehicles as opposed to 22,203 vehicles, 36 percent, following from the rear.
Georgia led the way with the most school bus drivers participating in the one-day count at 13,468 followed by Tennessee with 11,811 and North Carolina with 10,597.
As she sits on her living room sofa surrounded by a large cutout, framed photos and a houseful of other reminders of her son Javon, Andrea Wilson, 41, can’t help but lose hope that her son’s murder will ever be solved.
“Nobody’s ever going to be held accountable,” she said. “It just feels like no one is going to be held responsible for his murder.”
It’s been nearly a year since she’s heard from Milwaukee homicide detectives and more than 16 months since Javon, 21, was hanging out with a group of friends when someone opened fire on them. They took him to St. Joseph’s hospital, where he died from a gunshot wound to his stomach.
Losing her firstborn is bad enough, she said, but not having justice makes it harder. Wilson is not alone in her struggles. In Milwaukee, hundreds of families share the unenviable bond of having a loved one murdered, with no one held responsible for it.
Unsolved murders in Milwaukee
From 2020 to 2024, 901 homicides occurred in the city of Milwaukee. Over 350 of those murders remain unsolved, based on homicide clearance data provided by the Milwaukee Police Department.
The homicide clearance rate refers to the percentage of cases cleared through arrest or because an arrest is impossible because of certain circumstances such as death, divided by the total number of homicides. Clearance rates also factor in murders solved during a calendar year for incidents that occurred in prior years.
The clearance rate in Milwaukee fluctuated between 50% and 59% from 2020 to 2023. The year Javon was murdered, in 2023, 59% of 172 murders were cleared.
Last year, when homicides dropped in the city by 30%, the clearance rate rose to 78%. Unsurprisingly, the clearance rate was lowest during the peak of the COVID pandemic when the number of homicides exploded in Milwaukee.
Javon’s story
Javon was a fast talker and good kid who excelled at wrestling and other sports in school. He was also extremely bright, graduating from West Allis Central High School with a 3.9 GPA. Offered two college scholarships, he chose instead to attend MATC and pursue his dreams of being a rapper and entrepreneur.
The day he got shot began like any other. He went to play basketball, came home to shower, and he let his mother know that he was heading out again.
Then there was a knock at the door, and she learned Javon had been shot and was in the hospital.
As she arrived, she asked about his condition.
All the hospital staff would tell her, she said, is that they were waiting for detectives to arrive.
“I should have realized then that he was already dead,” Wilson said.
Wilson said her son wasn’t the intended victim but got caught up in someone else’s beef.
After he died, she said, she called detectives for two weeks straight, even providing the names of potential suspects.
“It didn’t matter. They called it hearsay,” Wilson said. “I feel like I know who murdered my son.”
MPD stated that it continues to seek suspects in Javon’s homicide.
‘There’s no stopping them’
Janice Gorden, who founded the organization Victims of Milwaukee Violence Burial Fund 10 years ago, said it’s common for mothers to conduct their own investigations in their loved one’s murder.
“Sometimes they have way more information than the detectives do,” she said.
Sadly, she said, many become consumed with trying to solve the murder themselves.
“They drive themselves crazy trying to find answers to who killed their loved one,” she said. “I try to help but I can’t. I just listen to people like that because there’s no helping them. There’s no stopping them.”
Since Javon’s death, Wilson said she’s gone through thousands of emotions, one of them being severe depression. Her mother, who helped raise Javon, her first grandson, is equally devastated. Javon also had a special bond with his little brother Shamus, who’s 8 years old.
Shamus keeps a large cutout of Javon’s high school graduation photo in his bedroom and even grew out his hair to mimic his brother’s dreadlock hairstyle. Wilson said Shamus has struggled with anger issues since his big brother was killed.
“He doesn’t know how to adjust his emotions,” she said. “It’s been a very downward spiral for all of us.”
Brenda Hines founded an organization in her son Donovan’s memory to help other grieving families. (Edgar Mendez / Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service)
‘I never knew it would happen to me’
Like Wilson, Brenda Hines knows the pain of losing a son to gun violence.
Her middle child, Donovan, 23, was shot and killed while driving a car near North 29th Street and West Hampton Avenue in 2017. His case also remains unsolved.
Hines said Donovan was never afraid to travel somewhere new without a plan other than to make it. She said she isn’t sure whether her son was killed in an ongoing dispute over a car or whether it stemmed from a woman.
“I know there were people at the funeral home and at his vigil who knew,” she said.
Hines has worked as a Salvation Army chaplain since 2014, heading to crime scenes to help other families deal with tragic incidents such as murders.
“I never knew it would happen to me,” she said.
Since Donovan’s death, she’s turned her pain into action, opening the Donovan Hines Foundation of Exuberance to honor her son and to help other families by providing mental health, grief counseling and other support.
She also hosts an annual vigil to honor homicide victims in Milwaukee, part of a national series of events. Many of the families she’s met along the way are also waiting for justice for their loved one’s murders.
“It really tears the family apart,” she said. “It’s like an open wound that is still bleeding. The tears flow every day.”
Hines says she can’t tell families she knows exactly how they feel.
“Every situation is different. But, I can tell them I understand,” she said.
Solving murders
James Hutchinson, captain of the Milwaukee Police Department’s Homicide Division, said his team of 33 detectives remains committed to solving a case even as the days grow into years.
“If someone comes in and says we have info on something that happened five years ago, we’ll take that info and follow up,” he said. “From the first two weeks, to a month, or months or years down the line, we’re equally as committed to solving a murder as we were today.”
Many families, such as those of Hines’ and Wilson’s, question whether every stone gets turned in an investigation.
“I don’t know if they did their due diligence,” Wilson said. “I don’t know if they care.”
Hines, who has worked closely with officers during her time as a chaplain, said she respects the challenges police officers face.
“They don’t have enough evidence,” she said.
Still, she can’t help but feel that more could have and should be done.
“I’ve met personally with detectives because they won’t call back,” she said. “It’s a bad process.”
Though it may not be much solace to the hundreds of families in Milwaukee still hoping for justice, Hutchinson said he and the detectives in his unit take each case personally. They know that the victim’s family and friends are devastated by their loved one’s murder.
“It’s heartbreaking,” he said. “Making a death notification is one of the hardest parts of this job.”
Hutchinson said resources in his department were spread thin when murders exploded in the city during the pandemic, which increased the challenge of building a case.
The biggest challenge, though, he said, is that witness cooperation isn’t what it used to be.
“It’s changed for the worse,” Hutchinson said. “There wasn’t a no snitching campaign back then.”
Wilson admits that witnesses to her son’s murder were reluctant to talk to police. She tracked down suspects on her own and offered those names to officers. That wasn’t enough to warrant charges, police told her. She needed her son’s friends to step up.
“At this point y’all should tell what happened,” she told them. “Somebody needs to be held responsible.”
How Milwaukee compares nationally
Thomas Hargrove, founder of the Murder Accountability Project, the largest database of unsolved murders in America, said Milwaukee homicide clearance rates are similar to what he saw nationally, especially during the pandemic.
Many cities have struggled to solve murders since then. Part of the challenge is resources.
“When you have enough resources, good things happen. When you don’t, bad things happen,” Hargrove said. “When you have over 200 murders, your system is off.”
He also said it’s also much harder to get a conviction now than it was 20 years ago, which can create friction between the district attorney’s office and local police.
Although police might make an arrest in a homicide case, that doesn’t mean that charges will be filed.
Police, Hutchinson said, only need probable cause to make an arrest. The burden of proof at the district attorney’s office, which files homicide charges, is higher.
“They have to be able to prove it beyond a reasonable doubt,” he said. “Many times we will make an arrest for probable cause, but we can’t get to that level.”
What often happens, Hutchinson said, is that officers will bring a case to the DA’s office or discuss what evidence they have and then have a dialogue about whether more is needed to file charges.
While that can bring some frustration, admits Hutchinson, it is better than arresting the wrong person.
“My worst nightmare I would have in the world is to have the wrong person held accountable for a crime,” he said.
Milwaukee County District Attorney Kent Lovern acknowledges that the work to hold someone accountable for murder can be burdensome on families seeking justice.
“Obviously there is a significant gap between the evidence needed to make an arrest versus the evidence needed to successfully prosecute a case,” Lovern said.
The reason for caution and continued dialogue with officers in hopes of building a strong case is because there’s no room for error.
“We really have one opportunity with a particular suspect to bring forward charges, and we want to get it right. Not only for the person charged, but the victim’s family and the integrity of the system,” he said.
Regardless, said Hargrove, the more murders that remain unsolved, the worse it is for everyone.
“The more murders you clear, the more murderers you get off the street, the more the murder rate will go down,” he said.
Trying to move on
As Hines reflects on the ripple effect her son’s murder has had on her family, she does the only thing she can to maintain hope.
“I have to have the peace of God,” she said. “He has taken care of the situation. I still get angry but I have to let God take control.”
Meanwhile, Wilson, who still talks to Javon’s friends regularly, visits his grave monthly, and she threw him a huge birthday bash in May.
She wonders whether it’s time to put away some of his photos. Among them are large poster boards filled with pictures that were on display during Javon’s funeral.
“I have to admit it is kind of depressing,” she said. “But it makes me feel like he’s still here with me.”
For more information
Anyone with any information about murders is asked to contact Milwaukee police at (414) 935-7360. If you wish to remain anonymous, contact Crime Stoppers at (414) 224-TIPS (8477).
It allows for an individual to request federal agencies conduct a review of a homicide case investigation to determine whether it warrants a reinvestigation.
Smith and Wesson handguns are displayed during the 2015 NRA Annual Meeting and Exhibits in Nashville, Tenn. Nashville had the fifth-highest reported gun theft rate in 2022, with 210 incidents per 100,000 residents. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
A growing number of firearms are being stolen from parked cars, especially in urban areas, according to a new report that highlights a frequently overlooked source of illegally circulating guns.
The nonpartisan think tank Council on Criminal Justice released an analysis examining five years of gun theft data reported to law enforcement in 16 cities — both urban and rural — with populations over 250,000. The analysis found that while the overall rate of reported gun thefts remained steady between 2018 and 2022, gun thefts from motor vehicles rose sharply.
The number of guns reported stolen from vehicles increased by 31% over the five-year period, while gun thefts during burglaries of homes and businesses fell by 40%. In large urban areas, the overall gun theft rate jumped by 42% between 2018 and 2022, while rural areas saw a 22% decline.
The findings are based on data from more than 2,000 law enforcement agencies across the country that consistently submitted detailed crime reports to the FBI’s National Incident-Based Reporting System between 2018 and 2022. Together, those agencies represent about 25% of the U.S. population and 12% of all law enforcement agencies nationwide.
As gun violence continues to grip communities across the country, a growing body of research suggests that firearm theft — particularly from vehicles — is a key, but often overlooked, source of weapons used in crimes. While research remains limited, some studies show stolen guns are disproportionately recovered at crime scenes, and gun violence tends to rise in areas where thefts have occurred.
Yet national data on gun theft remains sparse and there is no nationwide system for tracking stolen guns. Even basic details — such as how many guns are taken in each reported incident — are often missing from official police reports.
With crime and firearm policy high on the Trump administration’s agenda, experts say more research is urgently needed to understand how stolen guns fuel broader cycles of violence.
“We really don’t have a full national picture of stolen guns,” said Susan Parker, one of the report’s authors and a research assistant professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Northwestern University. “It’s really difficult to think about prevention when you don’t know much.”
The report’s findings suggest that parked cars have become a major weak point in firearm security — one that could be addressed through policy, public education and better data collection.
Some states, including Colorado and Delaware, have recently passed laws requiring firearms stored in vehicles to be locked in secure containers. In recent years, several other states have considered similar measures, including legislation mandating safe storage and stricter reporting requirements for lost or stolen guns.
Where you store your gun really matters. We see that so many of the guns that are stolen are increasingly from vehicles.
– Susan Parker, research assistant professor at Northwestern University
Currently, just 16 states and the District of Columbia require gun owners to report lost or stolen firearms to law enforcement, according to the Giffords Law Center, a nonpartisan gun safety group.
“Where you store your gun really matters. We see that so many of the guns that are stolen are increasingly from vehicles,” Parker said. “That kind of shift in how we’re carrying guns should also maybe be accompanied by shifts in how we’re thinking about keeping them safe and out of the risk of being misused.”
Among the 16 cities included in the report, Memphis, Tennessee, had the highest rate of gun thefts in 2022 — 546 reported incidents per 100,000 residents. That’s nearly double the rate in Detroit, which ranked second at 297 per 100,000, and more than 10 times higher than in Seattle, which had the lowest rate at 44 per 100,000.
Kansas City, Missouri, had the third-highest rate at 234 per 100,000, followed by Milwaukee, at 219 per 100,000, and Nashville, Tennessee, at 210 per 100,000.
While residences remained the most common place guns were stolen from overall, the share of gun thefts occurring in parking lots, garages and on roads rose significantly. By 2022, 40% of all reported gun thefts involved a vehicle, up from 31% in 2018.
Vehicle break-ins resulting in stolen firearms nearly doubled in urban areas — from 37 per 100,000 people in 2018 to 65 per 100,000 people in 2022.
As parked vehicles have become a more frequent target for thieves, the locations of those thefts have shifted. In 2018, about half of all reported gun thefts from vehicles occurred at residences. By 2022, that share had dropped to roughly 40%, while thefts from vehicles in parking lots and garages rose by 76%. The report also found significant increases in gun thefts from vehicles on roads, highways and alleys — up 59% over the five-year period.
In the most rural areas, where gun ownership is often more common, the share of vehicle break-ins that resulted in gun theft rose from 18% to 24%. In urban areas, that figure increased from 6% to 10.5%.
Stateline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Stateline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Scott S. Greenberger for questions: info@stateline.org.
Participants walk through the Broadway Townhouses in Camden, N.J., as part of a training program to help neighborhoods affected by violence. The Community-Based Public Safety Collective, which offered the training, is one of at least 554 organizations affected by the U.S. Department of Justice’s abrupt termination in April of at least 373 public safety grants. (Photo courtesy of Aqeela Sherrills)
Community-based violence intervention programs nationwide have long worked alongside law enforcement officers to deescalate conflict, prevent retaliatory shootings and, in some cases, arrive at crime scenes before police do.
In many communities, these initiatives have been credited with saving lives and reducing violence.
But the Trump administration last month abruptly terminated at least 373 public safety grants from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Justice Programs, pulling roughly $500 million in remaining funds across a range of programs, according to a new report by the Council on Criminal Justice, a nonprofit think tank. The cuts come just as summer is approaching — a season when violence consistently peaks.
The grants were initially valued at $820 million, but many were multiyear awards at different stages of rollout, which means some of the money has already been spent.
At least 554 organizations across 48 states are affected by the cuts, many of them small, community-based nonprofits that rely on this money. The rescinded grants supported everything from violence prevention and policing to victim advocacy, reentry services, research, and mental health and substance use treatment. Some of the grants also were cut from state and local government agencies.
Another new report from the Council on Criminal Justice dug deeper into local effects: It found that the Trump administration’s cuts also eliminated 473 minigrants — known as “subawards” — passed from primary recipients to smaller groups that often face challenges accessing federal dollars directly, such as rural government agencies and grassroots nonprofits.
About $5 million of those subawards was intended for state, local and tribal law enforcement agencies working to reduce violence in rural areas, according to the report.
Experts warn the timing couldn’t be worse. The summer months — historically linked to higher rates of violent crimes — are approaching, and the safety net in many cities is fraying. A growing body of research has found a correlation between spikes in temperature and violent crime, with studies suggesting that heat waves and sudden weather swings can inflame tensions and increase aggression.
“These programs are having to cut staff and cut services, and that will be felt in communities in states all over the country at exactly the time when they’re most needed,” said Amy Solomon, a senior fellow at the Council on Criminal Justice and the lead author of the report.
Solomon also previously served as assistant U.S. attorney general in the Biden administration, where she led the Office of Justice Programs — the Justice Department’s largest grantmaking agency.
Many of the primary grants that were terminated contained no references to race, gender or diversity-related language, according to the report — despite claims from federal officials that such criteria were driving the cuts. Primary grant recipients received their funding from the feds directly.
‘Wasteful grants’
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi defended the cuts in a late April post on X, stating that the department has cut “millions of dollars in wasteful grants.” She also signaled that additional cuts may be on the way. In her post, she specifically cited grants that supported LGBTQ+ liaison services in police departments and programs providing gender-affirming care and housing for incarcerated transgender people.
The Department of Justice’s cuts come amid a broader push by the Trump administration and the newly created Department of Government Efficiency to pull funding from a range of federal programs — a move they say is aimed at reducing spending and saving taxpayer dollars.
For some groups, the sudden withdrawal of funds has meant scaling back crime victim services or pulling out of some neighborhoods altogether.
Community violence prevention groups aim to stop shootings and other forms of violence before they happen by working directly with those most at risk. Staff — often with experience in the justice system — mediate conflicts, respond to crises, and connect people to support such as counseling or job training. In some cities, they’re dispatched to high-risk areas to deescalate tensions, often before police arrive.
And research shows that community-level violence prevention programs can contribute to drops in crime.
After a historic surge in homicides in 2020, violent crime in the United States dropped in 2024 to pre-pandemic levels — or even lower — in many cities. Preliminary 2025 data suggests that the downward trend is continuing in major cities, including Baltimore, Houston, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.
But the progress hasn’t reached every community. Some neighborhoods are still grappling with high rates of gun violence and car theft.
Organizations that faced the toughest financial cuts had been funded through the U.S. Department of Justice’s Community Based Violence Intervention and Prevention Initiative — the federal government’s primary mechanism for supporting this work.
Since the program’s launch in 2022, the federal Office of Justice Programs has invested about $300 million in community violence intervention efforts and related research. But nearly half of that funding has now been wiped out, according to the Council on Criminal Justice report.
“It’s really unprecedented to see these kinds of grants cut midstream,” Solomon told Stateline. “This was an effort that had bipartisan support [in Congress] and in the field all across the country.”
Impact on communities nationwide
In late April, Aqeela Sherrills received a letter from the federal Justice Department terminating a $3.5 million grant that supported the Community-Based Public Safety Collective. Sherrills is the co-founder and executive director of the national organization, which focuses on community-led approaches to preventing violence, including mediating conflicts, building relationships in high-risk neighborhoods and connecting people to resources such as housing, mental health care and job training.
The letter said the organization’s efforts no longer aligned with the federal Justice Department’s priorities, which include supporting “certain law enforcement operations, combatting violent crime, protecting American children, and supporting American victims of trafficking and sexual assault.”
Until the end of April, the collective had an agreement with the Justice Department to provide training and technical assistance to 95 local groups — including community groups, police departments, city and county governments, and state agencies — that had each been awarded $2 million over three years to run community violence intervention programs.
We're bracing for what could potentially be a high-violence summer.
– Aqeela Sherrills, co-founder and CEO of the Community-Based Public Safety Collective
But after the department cut $3.5 million, the Community-Based Public Safety Collective was forced to lay off 20 staff members.
“Without the significant funding … it destabilizes the organizations. People’s ability to be able to provide for themselves and their family is at risk,” Sherrills said in an interview. “We’re bracing for what could potentially be a high-violence summer.”
The deepest funding cuts hit states led by both Republican and Democratic governors, including California, Florida, Illinois, Kentucky, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Virginia and Washington.
About $145 million in violence intervention funding was rescinded overall, along with an additional $8.6 million for related research and evaluation efforts, according to the Council on Criminal Justice report.
Some of the canceled grants funded studies and research on forensics, policing, corrections issues and behavioral health. Now, those projects may be left unfinished.
Some of the largest losses hit intermediary organizations, such as the Community-Based Public Safety Collective, that support smaller programs by providing microgrants, training and technical assistance.
For organizations such as the Newark Community Street Team in New Jersey, the loss of federal funding has left some areas of the city without coverage.
The funding had allowed staff to monitor neighborhoods and engage directly with community members to prevent violence. That included weekly community walks, where team members connected with victims of crime and people who may have witnessed violence, linking them to resources such as counseling or legal aid. The team also operates a hotline where residents can report crimes or alert staff to tensions that might escalate — allowing the team to step in before violence occurred.
Some of the lost funding also supported school-based initiatives, where mediators helped students resolve conflicts before they escalated into fights or other forms of violence.
Of the 15 Newark positions affected by the cuts, four employees were reassigned to other departments; the others were let go. Some of the team’s staff members are formerly incarcerated, a vital trait that helps them connect with residents and build trust in communities that are often wary of traditional law enforcement.
“We just have to continue working and serving our community the best we can,” said Rey Chavis, the executive director of the street team.
That work appears to be contributing to a decrease in the community’s crime rates.
City crime data from Jan. 1 to April 30, 2025, shows a significant drop in violent crime in Newark compared with the same period in 2024. The total number of violent crimes reported to police fell by 49%, driven largely by a 68% decrease in robberies, according to Stateline’s analysis of the data. Homicides dropped by 53%, while aggravated assaults declined by 43%. Rapes dropped slightly by 3%.
Stateline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Stateline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Scott S. Greenberger for questions: info@stateline.org.
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