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Crime & Safety

Man Accused of Beating Liquor Store Owner With His Cane

Suspect hits one of the owners of Tosa Liquor several times Friday night after the man tells him they're closed.

 

A 42-year-old Wauwatosa man is facing felony charges after he allegedly beat one of the owners of with his cane Friday after he was told the store was closed for the night.

Maurice L. May was charged Saturday in Milwaukee County Circuit Court with one count of substantial battery with a dangerous weapon. If convicted, he faces up to 3 ½ years in prison and $10,000 in fines.

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According to the criminal complaint:

At 9 p.m. Friday, one of the owners of the store was in the parking lot and closing up the store for the day when May walked up to him, walking with a cane. The man told May the store was closed, but May began to argue with him.

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A co-owner looked out and recognized May as the same man who had committed a theft at the store about two years ago. He repeated that the store was closed and told May to be on his way.

May continued argue, so the first man called the police. May said, “You going to call the cops? We’ll see what they do,” then took his cane and hit him in the leg and then in the forehead with his walking cane.

The victim suffered a laceration on his head from the attack that required eight stitches.

The first police officer on the scene said that he immediately handcuffed May for his own safety until other officers arrived because the suspect is 6-feet 6-inches tall and weighs 295 pounds.

The officer reported that he found the liquor store employee clutching a blood-soaked paper towel to his head and called a Fire Department medical unit to take him to the hospital.

May claimed he had just been cutting through the liquor store parking lot on his way to McDonald’s when the employee came out of the store, began insulting him and then threatened to shoot him.

May said the man reached for his waist several times and he saw what could have been a weapon, so he decided to strike the victim because he feared for his safety.

May was taken to the where he told a similar story again, but this time said the victim had reached for something in his right pocket, and he thought it was a pistol, so he hit him.

However, an officer reviewed surveillance video footage of the incident, which showed the victim in the parking lot of the business holding a cell phone nearly the entire time when May attacked. The victim never made a move for his waistband in the video before May suddenly struck him with the cane and then walked away.

May was assigned a $1,000 signature bond and turned over to the JUSTICE 2000 program while awaiting trial. 

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