Milwaukee, WI
Felonies filed against mother, uncle of Milwaukee 6-year-old killed in accidental shooting
An aerial view of Lakeshore State Park in Milwaukee, an urban oasis
An aerial view of Lakeshore State Park in Milwaukee, Wisconsin’s only urban state park, complete with harbor and access to state trails.
The mother and uncle of a 6-year-old Milwaukee boy are facing felonies in the accidental shooting death of the child.
Milwaukee prosecutors charged Daquela Collins and Quintell Collins, the child’s mother and uncle, in the April 1 death of Daquell “King” Collins. The mother is facing a child neglect charge, while the uncle was charged with six felonies, including second-degree reckless homicide, and a misdemeanor.
Authorities say Daquela was at work when the King accidentally shot himself and a gun she owned was found near his body. Meanwhile, Quintell filmed himself on social media holding the firearm and another gun earlier in the day of the shooting, according to a criminal complaint outlining charges.
The charges filed on Sunday follow a Friday vigil for King.
At it, family members and attendees celebrated what would have been his 7th birthday. He was described as a loving brother and son, and as a “dancing machine.”
“He just was a good kid,” King’s father Rashadd Vinson-Turney said.
Meanwhile, Aundayous Burks, a former partner of Daquela and who said he was the child’s stepfather, said the boy he coparented made him want to be a better man. He defended the mother at the vigil.
“His mama loved him with all her heart. She was there for him since day one,” Burks said. “His mama would go broke for him.”
It is common for the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office to charge parents and other caretakers in accidental shootings with felony child neglect, a Journal Sentinel investigation found. Conversely, similar incidents are more often charged as misdemeanors in other counties in Wisconsin, the investigation found.
Accidental shootings that kill children are rare, making up only 5% of all gun deaths for those younger than 18 nationally. In Wisconsin, the Journal Sentinel found across eight years there were nearly 200 unintentional shootings involving children statewide. Roughly half occurred in Milwaukee County.
In total, there were 28 unintentional gun deaths of children ages 1 to 17 in Wisconsin between 2004-2022, the most recent year’s data available.
Earlier this year, another child was killed in what prosecutors say was an accidental shooting. Like Daquela, the mother was charged with felony child neglect.
Prosecutors outline mother’s gun purchase, uncle fleeing police
According to the criminal complaint:
King’s grandmother called police just before 9:30 p.m. on April 1 to report that the child had shot himself. Upon police’s arrival, they unsuccessfully attempted to give medical attention to the child and found a gun near his body.
The grandmother later told officers that her son Quintell lived with her and that Daquela and King had lived with them for the last six months.
Daquela was at work when the shooting occurred and rushed home once her mother told her what happened. She told police she purchased the gun found near her son about a month prior and kept it in a cardboard box on the floor of a closet in the home.
Authorities say Quintell fled the house after King was shot. Surveillance footage showed him and another man, unidentified in the compliant, running in an alleyway and the uncle hiding a gun under a garbage can. Later, footage shows them returning to try and find the gun on two occasions, but police had already found it.
Before the shooting, she told police, her brother sent her an Instagram message at about 11:30 a.m. of him holding her gun and another firearm. Daquela told him to “put her shit down”, but he responded with a laughing face emoiji. King could be seen in the background of the video.
She later called her mother and asked her to tell Quintell to stop playing with her gun. The next day, police officers interviewed Daquela again, where she confirmed this information.
“During the interview, Daquela Collins confirmed that it was her responsibility to safeguard her firearm,” the prosecutor writes in the complaint.
Two days after the shooting, police officers located Quintell, and he led them on a car chase that reached over 80 miles per hour. In a later April 4 interview with police, the prosecutor writes Quintell lied to investigators about being at the house when the shooting occurred, hiding a gun, and his knowledge of guns in the house, among other things.
The day before, Quintell’s grandmother told police she had convinced him to come to her home, where he admitted to her he was present at the home when King died, fleeing it and hiding the gun.
Police reviewed text messages between the mother and uncle, showing she purchased guns on behalf of her brother, who is prohibited from owning guns due to previous felonies. The messages are between March 6 and March 30 and, in one, Daquela tells her brother not to leave a gun in the home, because of her son.
The messages are of the two discussing her purchase of a gun and, later, a sale of a weapon.
Daquela is charged with felony child neglect and straw purchasing of a firearm.
Quintell is charged with six felonies: child neglect, two counts of possession of a firearm as a felon, second-degree recklessly endangering safety, fleeing police in a vehicle and second-degree reckless homicide. He also faces a misdemeanor for obstruction of an officer.
This is not the first time the man has faced criminal prosecution. Quintell previously pleaded guilty to two 2022 felonies for fleeing police and 2nd-degree recklessly endangering safety.
Daquela is scheduled for a preliminary hearing in her court case on April 15. Quintell is scheduled for his preliminary hearing the same day.
David Clarey is a public safety reporter at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. He can be reached at dclarey@gannett.com.I
7 Brew to open three Milwaukee-area stands
7 Brew is expanding with three new coffee stands in the Milwaukee area, offering energy drinks, smoothies, and unique coffee options.
The rapidly growing coffee chain 7 Brew has opened a new location in Milwaukee, bringing the drive-thru beverage brand its first — but not last — spot in the city.
On Thursday, April 23, Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson attended a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the location, at 350 W. Layton Ave.
The business will celebrate its opening with a “Swag Day” T-shirt giveaway for customers who purchase a large drink on Saturday, May 2.
“Milwaukee is such a vibrant and welcoming city, and we couldn’t be more excited to be a part of it,” said Tommy Pennington, a local 7 Brew franchisee.
Other 7-Brew locations will open later this spring or summer at 3702 S. 27th St. in Milwaukee and 5265 N. Port Washington Road in Glendale. They’ll join 13 current Wisconsin locations, including in Brookfield and West Bend.
Founded in 2017, the company offers coffee, energy drinks, smoothies, sodas and teas on the menus at each location.
By 2023, 7 Brew opened more than 100 stands and, by 2025, the number of locations increased to 500.
Milwaukee Wave coach Marcio Leite on goalkeeper Jerry Perez’s offense
Milwaukee Wave Marcio Leite tells the origin story of the rookie goalkeepr who has become a serious scoring threat in the MASL.
After rallying to win its first two series in the MASL playoffs following losses in Game 1, the Milwaukee Wave will have an opportunity to do it one more time.
This time the championship is on the line.
The Wave scored seven unanswered goals – albeit three of them into an untended net in the final 78 seconds – in beating the short-handed San Diego Sockers 7-2 on April 24 at Frontwave Arena in Oceanside, California.
Midfielder Alex Sanchez scored what proved to be the winning goal midway through the third quarter when he booted the ball over the Sockers wall on a restart from the top of arc.
“I think just a change in attitude and mentality,” Wave goalkeeper Jerry Perez said in a television interview regarding the difference in Game 2 compared to the 5-4 loss in the series opener. “Them coming to our home and just taking over at our place, we wanted to do the same coming to theirs.
“The fans also, amazing atmosphere. That’s what a final’s all about.”
In advancing past the Empire Strykers and Baltimore Blast, the Wave had to win a 15-minute knockout game at home, but this time it is on the road and will have to prevail over a full 60 minutes April 27 on San Diego’s blue turf.
For Game 3, San Diego will get back three players who were out for disciplinary actions related to incidents two nights earlier in Milwaukee.
Sockers captain Cesar Cerda was given a red card after the game, resulting in an automatic one-game suspension, for kicking Wave defender Tony Walls in the groin. Midfielder Luiz Morales and forward Jesus Pacheco were suspended for their involvement in a clash with spectators at the UWM Panther Arena that followed Cerda’s kick and subsequent shoving between the teams. Additionally, Stefan Mijatovic was kicked out of the league for his role in the postgame skirmish with specators.
While the Wave escaped Game 1 with no players being punished, it did suffer a significant setback in warmups when Oscar Flores, the league’s newcomer of the year and Milwaukee’s playoff point-scoring leader, went down with a quadriceps injury.
The Sockers got goals from two unlikely sources, defenders Ben Ramin and Sean Callahan, in the second quarter. Ramin’s goal was his first of the season and Callahan’s his fifth.
But two of the Wave’s most familiar names knotted the score in a span of 30 seconds straddling halftime. Forty-two-year-old forward Ian Bennett took a cross off the wall and buried it with 20 seconds left in the first half, and 39-year-old Max Ferdinand scored a run down the right side just 10 seconds after the second-half kickoff.
Sanchez’s winner came 9:34 into the third quarter on a ball neatly tucked into the upper right corner. Wave rookie forward Lucas Nesthaus, a Pewaukee native who played for Marquette University in the fall, added insurance at 6:17 of the fourth on a breakaway with a bicycle kick assist from Cesar Correa.
Perez got plenty of help from the posts and crossbar in keeping San Diego off the board.
Then Javier Steinwascher scored a long roller after the Sockers had pulled Chris Toth for a sixth attacker, and Correa connected twice into the empty net.
The Wave will be chasing its eight title after most recently winning the MASL’s Ron Newman Cup in 2019. San Diego is trying to win it 17th championship across various indoor leagues, its third in the MASL and its first since 2022.
Take a tour of Milwaukee’s deep tunnel
Take a tour of Milwaukee’s deep tunnel. It was designed to capture and hold excess runoff and sewer water, thereby mitigating flooding.
About 2.7 billion gallons of untreated wastewater was discharged into local waterways and Lake Michigan, according to the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District.
Last week’s torrents of rain pushed Milwaukee into its rainiest April on record. Upwards of 6.69 inches of rain fell in the Milwaukee area from April 12 to 16, according to the sewerage district’s rain gauges. Flood warnings remain more than a week later in a dozen counties.
The systemwide combined sewer overflow, initiated at 8:24 p.m. on Apr. 14, lasted about 114 hours. The wet weather also resulted in several sanitary sewer overflows in the sewerage district’s isolated-sewer system.
In a combined system, a single pipe carries both untreated wastewater and stormwater. It makes up 6% of the sewerage district’s service area, and is located entirely within the city of Milwaukee and the Village of Shorewood. In an isolated-system, sewage and stormwater flow through different pipes.
In both cases, an overflow can mean elevated bacteria from untreated wastewater in local waterways.
The estimated total volume was of the sanitary sewer overflows was 11.6 million gallons, impacting West Allis, Milwaukee, Bayside and River Hills. Specifically, these overflows occurred at:
- W. Grant Street and S. 77th Street in West Allis;
- S. 43rd Street and W. Lincoln Avenue in Milwaukee;
- S. 74th Street and West Oklahoma Avenue in Milwaukee;
- N. Broadmoor Road in Bayside;
- N. Lake Drive and East Ravine Lane in Bayside
- N. Range Line Road and Milwaukee River in River Hills; and
- N. River Road and W. Greentree Road in River Hills.
An in-plant spill also occurred at the Jones Island Water Reclamation facility as a result of the intense rainfall. However, the sewerage district said that Lake Michigan and local waterbodies were not impacted. Work on this spill is ongoing.
By federal law, the sewerage district is allowed six combined sewer overflows per year. Since 1994, it has captured and cleaned an average of 98.6% of wastewater.
Last year’s historic August flood event led to about 5.14 billion gallons of untreated wastewater being discharged into nearby waterways and Lake Michigan. It was the largest systemwide since the Deep Tunnel was built in 1993.
Since 1995, the sewerage district has invested more than $580 million in green infrastructure and flood management projects to improve the landscape’s ability to hold onto water, helping to avoid overflows.
Green infrastructure helps nature do its job by absorbing and storing rain and melting snow. It protects against flooding and excessive heat as well as improves air, soil and water quality, which can help the city better adapt to a changing climate.
Caitlin Looby covers the Great Lakes and the environment for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Contact: clooby@gannett.com. Follow her on social media @caitlooby.
Caitlin is an Outrider Fellow whose reporting also receives support from the Brico Fund, Fund for Lake Michigan, Barbara K. Frank, and individual contributions to the Journal Sentinel Community-Funded Journalism Project. Journal Sentinel editors maintain full editorial control over all content. To support this work, visit jsonline.com/support. Checks can be addressed to Local Media Foundation (memo: “JS Community Journalism”) and mailed to P.O. Box 85015, Chicago, IL 60689.
This fundraising effort is made possible through our partnership with Local Media Foundation, a verified 501(c)3 nonprofit organization (tax ID #36-4427750) and EnMotive Company, LLC, a subsidiary of USA TODAY Co., Inc. USA TODAY Co., Inc. is the parent company of this publication.
The JS Community-Funded Journalism Project is made possible through our partnership with Local Media Foundation, tax ID #36-4427750, a Section 501(c)(3) charitable trust affiliated with Local Media Association, and EnMotive, LLC, a subsidiary of USA TODAY Co., Inc. USA TODAY Co., Inc. is the parent company of this publication.
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