Two Boys Tell of Being Chased by Man with Shotgun

Two Milwaukee boys who had just gone to a movie on Wauwatosa's east side ran back to the theater a short time later in fear, saying they had just been confronted and chased by a man with a shotgun.

According to police reports:

At about 9 p.m. Sunday, police were called to investigate a report that someone was being chased by a man with a gun in the area of North 68th Street and West Garfield Avenue.

A police officer who was first on the scene did not initially see anything amiss but noticed an older gray Buick sedan that seemed worth checking out, and he ran the plate, which turned up no wants, but then lost sight of it.

Then he was flagged down by a driver at North 68th Street and West North Avenue who yelled that her son was being chased by a man with a gun. Just as the officer was beginning to speak to her, he got a call that two frightened boys were waiting at the , 6823 W. North Ave., with the same story.

The officer went to the Rosebud, where he met the owner, who had called police when the two boys arrived there scared and out of breath.

The two boys, one 13 and one 14 and both students at Hi-Mount Community School in Milwaukee, said they had gone to a movie at the theater earlier and when it was over one had called a cousin to get a ride home.

They were told to wait at , 2166 N. 68th St., so they began to walk south on 68th. They said an old gray car with a loud exhaust approached from the south and stopped across from them.

They told police the driver stared at them, and one of the boys heard him call out something. Then the man drove on and turned right onto North Avenue.

The boys kept on to Washington School, where they walked east on Garfield Aveune, which dead-ends north of the building, and came out on the sidewalk at North 67th Street.

Then they saw the same gray car driving toward them fast and recognized it. The 13-year-old said, “Hey, isn’t that the car we just saw?”

The car stopped just in front of them, they said, and the driver got out and put up the hood of his sweatshirt. Then he walked around the back of the car and they saw that he was holding a shotgun. Both boys said they saw him pump the gun and heard what sounded like a round being chambered.

They turned and ran back up the dead-end and hid in some bushes in a yard. They heard the car approach, recognizing the loud exhaust, and said they heard the man revving the engine not far from them.

One of them called his mother, who then called the Wauwatosa police. When they heard the car drive off, they then decided they should get somewhere safe and went back to the Rosebud.

The boys said they had never seen the man or the car before.

Wauwatosa and Milwaukee police searched but could not find the Buick on the streets, and its license led them to an interview with a Milwaukee man who said he let others register cars under his name. He identified a man who might have bought the car for his son, but police were unable to locate him or the son.

The boys described the man who had confronted them as an African-American with a dark complexion, likely in his mid-20s, 5 feet, 9 inches to 5 feet, 10 inches tall, weighing about 135 pounds. He was wearing a dark hoodie zipped all the way up and dark pants that were not jeans.

Shortly after the incident, a Tosa officer was checking with Milwaukee police who were just then taking a burglary complaint from the 2700 block of North Carlton Place, just nine blocks northeast, in which several firearms had been stolen including a pump shotgun. Police from both departments are investigating the two incidents as possibly related.