03-07-2025
Man charged with homicide for beating 73-year-old near Milwaukee homeless shelter
A Milwaukee man is being charged with first degree intentional homicide for attacking and killing a 73-year-old across the street from a homeless shelter.
A criminal complaint filed July 2 alleges Isaac Moore-Hodges, 28, beat the elderly man on June 30 with a plastic crate in a garden belonging to the Guest House of Milwaukee, a homeless shelter on North 13th Street in the King Park neighborhood.
Moore-Hodges was formerly enrolled in the Guest House's veteran's assistance program, according to two shelter employees interviewed by a Milwaukee Police Department detective. One employee, unnamed in the complaint, said Moore-Hodges stayed at the Guest House from February through April, then returned in early June.
It is unclear whether Moore-Hodges was staying at the Guest House at the time of the attack.
Stephen Bauer, the Guest House's chief executive officer, told the Journal Sentinel he cannot disclose whether the victim of the attack was a resident of the Guest House. Bauer referred questions to the Milwaukee Police Department.
According to the complaint, Milwaukee Police Department officers were dispatched to the shelter, which provides short-term housing to men, for a battery complaint.
At a park across the street, the officers found the victim, who had severe facial injuries and, the officers determined, was already deceased. The officers identified the victim, who is unnamed in the complaint, by an identification card in his pocket.
A Guest House employee told officers she saw Moore-Hodges "breathing heavily" near where the victim's body was found around 3:45 a.m., according to the complaint.
Officers reviewed video footage from the Guest House, which showed a man they identified as Moore-Hodges approaching the victim, sleeping on a park bench, around 3:35 a.m. on June 30.
The younger man then hit the older man with an object resembling a plastic milk crate 18 times, according to the complaint's account of the footage.
The man identified as Moore-Hodges walked away from the park around 3:50 a.m.
According to the complaint, an autopsy on June 30 affirmed the victim died of multiple blunt force injuries to his head and neck.
Moore-Hodges first appeared in Milwaukee County Circuit Court on July 3, according to online court records. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for July 10. If he is tried and convicted of the charge of first degree intentional homicide, he could face a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Man charged for killing 73-year-old near Milwaukee homeless shelter
