Milwaukee double homicide suspect on FBI's 'Most Wanted' list caught in El Paso

For the second time in less than a year, a Milwaukee homicide suspect has been arrested after being added to the FBI's "Ten Most Wanted" list.

Terry A.D. Strickland, 24, who is wanted in a double killing, was captured early Sunday in El Paso, Texas, the FBI announced.

When he was added to the most-wanted list last month, Milwaukee Police Chief Edward Flynn said he was accused of having "cold-bloodedly killed" two innocent men, Maurice Brown Jr. and Michael Allen Reed.

Strickland was among a group of men arguing in front of a Milwaukee home July 17 when witnesses saw him go inside the house, emerge with a gun and fire into the small crowd, officials said.

Strickland then approached Brown, 38, who was laying on the ground, and shot him multiple times before turning to Reed, 39, and shooting him in the head, according to authorities.

Strickland fled in a black SUV, abandoning his 18-month-old daughter who was inside the house, officials said.

"I am ecstatic that he's been arrested for the murder of my son," said Reed's mother, Janice Reed, on Sunday after a reporter told her the news.

"My son can rest now," she added.

Flynn described the crime as "vicious" and "unnecessary."

"Neither individual posed the slightest threat to Mr. Strickland, but they paid with their lives for occupying the same space," he said.

After the FBI got a tip on its public access line, agents learned on Saturday that Strickland was possibly living in El Paso. Law enforcement officers worked throughout Saturday and into Sunday to locate him before arresting him at 5:10 a.m. during a traffic stop, according to a news release from the FBI. Strickland was arrested without incident.

Strickland had been arrested earlier in 2016, before the double homicide, after he reportedly pointed and aimed a gun at another person, police said. The victim did not cooperate and charges were not filed.

Strickland was the second Milwaukee homicide suspect added to the FBI's most-wanted list within a six-month period.

Last summer, Shanika Minor was arrested in North Carolina within a week of being added. She is charged with fatally shooting her mother's nine-months-pregnant neighbor, Tamecca Perry, hours after Minor confronted the woman with a complaint about loud music.

Minor was the seventh Wisconsin fugitive to appear on the FBI list since its inception in 1950 and the first from Milwaukee. Her jury trial is scheduled to begin in February.

A reward was paid out to an individual who provided information leading directly to Minor's arrest, an FBI official said last month. A $100,000 reward was being offered in the Strickland case but it was not immediately clear Sunday afternoon if anyone had a claim to it.

When Strickland was added to the list, Flynn said the Police Department has a "very positive relationship with the FBI" and the agencies are members of the same local task forces.

"I'd like to believe part of our working relationships contributed to the fact that this is the second individual Milwaukee has been able to place on the most-wanted list just this year," Flynn said last month.

Strickland was charged in July in Milwaukee County Circuit Court with two counts of first-degree intentional homicide in the case. An arrest warrant was issued at that time. In October, he was charged federally with unlawful flight to avoid prosecution and another arrest warrant was issued.

Federal officials said Strickland, who grew up outside Chicago, had ties to Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana. Authorities have not publicly said what Strickland was doing in El Paso, which is on the border with Mexico.

"It was one month ago, to this day, that we added Terry A.D. Strickland to the FBI’s Top Ten Most Wanted," Milwaukee FBI Special Agent in Charge Justin Tolomeo said in a statement. "I am proud of the continuous hard work of our agents and law enforcement partners in quickly apprehending this dangerous and violent fugitive."

Meg Jones of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and Aaron Martinez of the El Paso Times contributed to this report.