3 shot, house set on fire at scene of investigation into missing Milwaukee girls

What started Tuesday as a missing-persons investigation morphed over the course of several hours as tensions about police treatment ran high and rumors spread online.

By nightfall, three people — including two 14-year-olds — had been shot, a house was set on fire, and police had fired tear gas and pepper spray on some members of a scattered crowd of hundreds who'd gathered outside a Milwaukee house where police earlier conducted an investigation into two missing teenage girls.

Both girls, ages 13 and 15, have been located as of Wednesday morning, police said. TV stations reported that the girls had last been seen Sunday evening.

Police are also investigating whether the girls may have been victims of sex trafficking, police spokeswoman Sgt. Sheronda Grant said.

"That's something that we are looking into," she said. "So that's under review. However, I cannot confirm that that is the case."

The two girls had not been considered critical missing and did not meet the criteria for an Amber Alert, Grant said.

The crowd that gathered Tuesday near the police investigation in the 2100 block of North 40th Street was a mix of neighbors observing the situation, people expressing frustration with police and activists who'd marched in Milwaukee's racial justice protests.

Some wanted to take the investigation into their own hands. Others joined the melee to express their grievances with police violence in general.

Police reported a boy and a girl, both 14, were shot near the scene around 5:45 p.m. and suffered injuries that were not life-threatening.

Then a 24-year-old man was shot near the scene around 7:30 p.m. as someone fired shots at his vehicle, police said. He refused medical treatment and his injuries were not life-threatening.

Seven police officers and one firefighter were injured in the unrest, Morales said.

How the chaos unfolded

Police responded to the home multiple times Monday and Tuesday to check for the missing girls, Milwaukee Police Chief Alfonso Morales said, but officers did not find them.

Then around 10 a.m. Tuesday, a group of people looking for the girls went to the home, Morales said. Police responded to the scene as well for a "trouble with subject" call and did not locate the girls.

Police then responded again around 11 a.m. after there was an "exchange of gunfire" between someone inside and someone from a group of people trying to get inside, Morales said. No injuries were reported.

A crowd grew near the home late Tuesday morning. Police officers stood outside the house as investigators worked inside, and some people were shouting at the officers, according to livestreams from the scene.

Some in the crowd threw bricks at officers, Morales said, prompting more officers to respond.

By mid-afternoon, the crowd had swelled to hundreds of onlookers. About 15 to 20 officers formed a line outside the house to keep the crowd back but left after investigators completed their work.

The crowd then surged toward the house, as some in the group wanted to look for evidence that supported the rumors of sex trafficking. Some broke into the house, while others smashed the windows of a vehicle parked on the property.

Local protest organizer Frank Sensabaugh — also known as Frank Nitty — talked to many of the angriest participants to defuse tension.

Police wearing face shields and holding batons arrived and formed lines outside the house and on nearby streets.

Groups of people also began an effort to look for the girls in nearby residences.

Around 5:45 p.m., people set a couch, a vehicle and a house on fire, Morales said. Fire crews were on the scene to extinguish the fires.

As crews were fighting the fires, the unrest escalated. Two 14-year-olds were shot — not by police, Morales said. 

Police fired tear gas, rubber bullets and pepper spray at some protesters, according to Sensabaugh’s livestream. Several people appeared to be injured, and volunteer medics were treating them — pouring milk on eyes and wrapping limbs.

Morales defended the use of force, saying police needed to make sure the scene was secure for fire crews to work as well as provide aid to one of the people shot in the crowd. 

"We had to go out there and now do a rescue in the middle of an angry crowd," Morales said.

He said bricks and other projectiles were being thrown at officers and firefighters.

After 7 p.m., Sensabaugh and a small group of others began a protest march away from the scene. A caravan of cars followed.

"This whole chain of events could have been avoided," Morales said at the news conference. "And my heart goes out for the people that live in this community."

Morales said he spoke to neighbors who wanted peace and worried about fires spreading to their own homes. He also denounced the "vigilantism" at the scene.

"We investigate the information that is given to us. We can't allow an unruly crowd to determine what that investigation is," Morales said.

"What you had today is vigilantism. You had people take the law into their own hands and run off of information that has not been proven," he continued. "We need to investigate that. That's what the police is here for."

Morales was frustrated with the misinformation he said proliferated throughout the day.

"We have to be allowed to conduct our investigation and not chase a crowd and take that information from that crowd to be factual," he said.

Contact Sophie Carson at (414) 223-5512 or scarson@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @SCarson_News.