Gun violence at Milwaukee's parks has residents, officials worried for the summer

Yahoo

29-03-2025

Every year there is a certain occurrence, as the seasons change and Milwaukee sees nicer weather, officials and residents become concerned about the city's younger residents gathering, usually after hours, at the parks and then the events turning violent.
Dineen Park is the latest county park that has nearby residents concerned after a 16-year-old boy and a 26-year-old man died following a shooting at the northwest side park earlier this month on one of the first warmer days of the year. Last summer, a mass shooting at the park killed one person and injured nine others.
Milwaukee County Supervisor Felesia A. Martin hosted a town hall at Dineen Park pavilion on Friday night. County and city officials and law enforcement were in attendance.
"What we found through data is that when the parks are active, the violence and even like the mobile drug dealing and all of that stuff — (other) people go elsewhere," said Brian Barkow, chief deputy with the Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office, which handles law enforcement at 160 county parks.
"(People) don't come to the park when it's (active)," he added.
As about 50 people gathered at the park's pavilion Friday, children could be seen playing on the playground. The park is typically active and surrounded by neighbors who have lived in their homes for decades, but those same residents say the park is not patrolled enough and the sheriff's office hasn't been doing a good job of closing the gates to the parking lots once the park is closed for the day.
"Usually the gunshots are happening anywhere after 10 o'clock to midnight, one o'clock, and I'll just be bolted out of bed," said Joyce Lottermoser, a 78-year-old resident whose backyard touches the park. "I don't even call the police anymore.
"The bottom line is, we can activate all we want, but the park is supposed to be closed at certain time."
Barkow reminded the attendees that the park shooting on March 9 happened at about 4:20 p.m. and he said the sheriff's office didn't receive any call from residents. He added that Milwaukee police's ShotSpotter sensors, a gunshot detection system, are not located as far west as Dineen Park.
"If no one's calling us, ... then we don't know that it's going on," Barkow said. "If you hear gunshots, please call. They can't get there fast enough. ... If there is a large party going on at Dineen Park, I guarantee you will see squads come."
Data shows MCSO has received 14 calls of service to Dineen Park in March alone. From January 2023 through March 2025, deputies responded to 176 incidents at the park, according to the sheriff's office. Those calls are mostly concentrated on weekend days.
Another resident at Friday's town hall said the park used to have a mobile surveillance camera at the park but the sheriff's office recently removed it. Barkow said starting two years ago cameras were placed at 25 active parks for a "security assessment." He said the camera project cost the county about $2.1 million.
But, James Tarantino, deputy director of Milwaukee County Parks, said a camera was placed at Dineen Park last year due to "break-ins and incidents in that parking lot."
Quinn Taylor is with the Office of Community Wellness and Safety. He recommends that residents sign up for the city's Alert Neighbor Program, where neighbors can fill out an application and once approved, will conduct a safety walk with law enforcement and elected officials, and equipment will be distributed, like cameras and lighting, that increases safety.
"It all starts with an organized block club," Taylor said. "We live in a different age. You got to understand the way young people are able to mobilize in a matter of minutes and it's very, very hard for law enforcement to track the violence."
Taylor said often these gatherings are sparked on social media. "In five, 10 minutes ... you got 300 young people," he said. "When you see people starting to congregate, when you see multiple cars driving down your block, that's something to alert law enforcement about.
"With the Alert Neighbor app, you'll get a notification when traffic comes past your house. And then, even through the app, you can alert other neighbors, other residents, of what's happening."
Barkow recommends the sheriff's office app as well as a way to notify authorities of violent behavior, and you can also inform law enforcement anonymously. Residents who would rather not engage with law enforcement, can also contact 414Life, a team of violence interrupters that is housed at the Medical College of Wisconsin.
Several residents spoke up for Milwaukee's youth, who some say have been "abandoned" since the COVID-19 pandemic.
"If you pay attention to them and get a hold of them and talk to them, not talk at them, but talk with them and understand what they're going through, you'll understand why they act the way they act, but y'all are willing to lock them up and get rid of them, instead of trying to nurture them and give them the love that they deserve as children that they lost with COVID or even before COVID," said one resident who didn't provide his name.
Michael King, 67, lives near Dineen Park and has been organizing free concerts at the parks for youth. "We raised (money) to give to whatever prevention, whatever you have to work towards rectifying the problem," he said. "Food, games, have fun, donate what you can give."
While Dineen Park has a splash pad, the parks department is investing in reopening more pools and splash pads that largely were shuttered during to the pandemic. "We're putting about $400,000 in pools," Tarantino said.
"We wanted to increase our ability to open all the aquatic facilities, splash pads, the waiting pools," he added. "The whole point is ... to have a busy park, a safe park, and we just want to have more of that activity."
Dineen Park area residents expressed to media in the weeks since the shooting that they may relocate as they feel uneasy about violence in Milwaukee, especially with summer approaching.
Ald. Sharlen Moore said the problem is bigger than Milwaukee County. "We know that the resources aren't there ... starting from all the way from federal government," she said. "Everything's being cut. It's going to get worse. I would love for us to rely on each other to figure out what are the partnerships? What are the resources that are already there?
"The sheriff can't do it by themselves. The police can't do it by themselves. The city can't do it by itself. ... A lot of my folks are saying, 'I want to move,' and I'm just like, No, don't go. ... We have to figure out how do we dig back in. ... The summer is coming."
Milwaukee's Office of Community Wellness and Safety recommends these resources for free support:
414Life outreach and conflict mediation support: 414-439-5525.
Milwaukee County's 24-Hour Mental Health Crisis Line: 414-257-7222.
Milwaukee's Child Mobile Crisis and Trauma Response Team: 414-257-7621.
National crisis text line: Text HOPELINE to 741741 to text with a trained crisis counselor.
National Suicide Prevention Hotline: [phone].
The National Domestic Violence Hotline is 800-799-7233.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Gun violence at Milwaukee's parks has residents worried for summer