6-year-old boy is Milwaukee's youngest gun violence victim of 2017

Six-year-old Justin Evans Jr. was about to leave on a fishing trip with his stepdad when he was shot and killed in his grandmother's yard Saturday evening. 

Justin is Milwaukee's youngest victim to die by gunfire this year.

Dozens of community activists, city leaders and friends and family gathered Sunday afternoon to mourn the loss of the energetic child and call for an end to gun violence in Milwaukee. 

Justin was shot around 6 p.m. Saturday while outside a house in the 3600 block of N. 23rd St. No suspects have been identified. The crime is under investigation by the Milwaukee Police Homicide Unit.

The 6-year-old was a caring big brother to his two younger siblings, said Dakota Jones, one of Justin's aunts. He loved to read and dance. 

"He was energetic. He was full of joy, positive energy," she said. "He was an innocent kid." 

Justin had just graduated kindergarten and was eager to start the first grade, Jones said. 

While Sundays were all about football for Justin, he often would go camping and fishing in Green Bay with his stepdad on Saturdays. Just last week, he caught his first fish. He thought at first that he had caught a shark, said Angel Lewis, another aunt. 

He was running up to the house to say goodbye to his mom before leaving for his fishing trip when he was shot, Lewis said. 

The shooting comes less than a week after two girls, ages 7 and 9, were wounded in a shooting that also injured two men. The girls are expected to survive their injuries and police are searching for suspects in that shooting.

Justin is one of four homicide victims this year who were under age 17, and one of three who died by gunfire. Two teens, 14-year-old Chrisima Murry and 16-year-old Emani Robinson, were shot and killed earlier this year in separate incidents. No arrests have been reported in either homicide.

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The youngest homicide victim is 1-year-old Tamiya Dotson, who was beaten to death. The boyfriend of the child's mother has been charged in her killing.

On Sunday afternoon, family, friends and community members walked around the neighborhood near where Justin was shot, clapping along and chanting "stop the violence with peace and love." People gathered donations for the family in a small bucket. Every few blocks the group stopped to pray for healing for the family and the city.

City leaders at the gathering encouraged unity and togetherness in the effort to stop gun violence.

Mayor Tom Barrett urged faith and community leaders to join together to help curb gun violence. 

"We can't expect help from the outside," he said. "We've waited for help from Washington. We've waited for help from Madison. It's not coming. It has to come from this neighborhood. It has to come from this city." 

Ald. Ashanti Hamilton echoed Barrett. He said people in neighborhoods across the city will need to unite in order to make a difference. 

"We have the power to change this," he said. "There's not a whole lot we can do to bring justice to Justin to bring him back. But we can bring him justice, and we can create a better community that's absent of the gun violence that's plaguing so many of our neighborhoods." 

Since 2012, 10 children have been killed by gunfire in Milwaukee, Police Chief Edward Flynn said. He described Saturday's shooting as "intolerable" and a "devastating loss."

"He'll never get a chance to do the things little kids do," he said. 

Ald. Milele Coggs addressed the latest fatal shooting Saturday in a post on her public Instagram account. The shooting happened in Coggs' district.

"The loss of the potential of all that child could have offered this world is immeasurable and whoever caused the loss will have to answer for their actions," she wrote.

So far this year, 64 homicides have occurred in Milwaukee, using federalguidelines for reporting crime to the FBI, according to preliminary data maintained by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

That's down from the 69 homicides recorded at this time last year.

Reggie Moore, the director of the city's Office of Violence Prevention, said it's important that anyone with information about the shooting or the shooters come forward with information. 

"It's unacceptable," he said. "And as a community we have to stand up against it." 

Anyone with information about unsolved homicides is asked to call Milwaukee police at (414) 935-7360.

The Milwaukee County medical examiner's office said Justin's autopsy is scheduled for Monday.