Jalerian McDade, a 17-year-old Black/African American female from Milwaukee, was fatally shot during the early morning hours of May 6, 2025, near North 40th Street and West Cherry Street, close to Washington Park. Police were called to the neighborhood shortly before 2:30 a.m. and found McDade unconscious in the backseat of a vehicle with a gunshot wound to her chest. Officers and other first responders attempted life-saving measures, but she was pronounced dead at the scene.
Investigators recovered a single spent cartridge casing from inside the vehicle.
McDade, affectionately known by family members as “Big Z,” was a student in Milwaukee Public Schools. According to later school district records, she was a 10th-grade student in the district’s virtual program. Her death came during Milwaukee’s Peace Week, a citywide initiative intended to promote safety and reduce violence, making the killing of a teenager particularly painful for her family and community.
Investigators quickly focused on McDade’s boyfriend, 18-year-old Zamaury Waheed. According to the criminal complaint, a friend of McDade told detectives that she had driven McDade to the area so McDade could meet with Waheed. After they arrived, Waheed reportedly came from a nearby residence and entered the backseat of the 2008 Ford Taurus, sitting beside McDade.
The friend told investigators that McDade and Waheed began arguing over accusations of infidelity. As the disagreement continued, the friend got out of the vehicle. While outside, she reportedly heard McDade tell Waheed to stop playing with her. Moments later, the friend heard a single gunshot. When she returned toward the vehicle, she told detectives she saw Waheed outside the car placing a black handgun into his waistband before running from the area.
Police later showed the witness photographs during the investigation, and she identified Waheed as the person who had been inside the vehicle with McDade immediately before the shooting. The circumstances described by the witness, along with evidence gathered from the vehicle and scene, became the basis for the criminal case against him.
Prosecutors charged Waheed with second-degree reckless homicide while using a dangerous weapon and possession of a firearm by an adjudicated delinquent. Court and news reports indicated that Waheed had previously been adjudicated delinquent in July 2023 for a firearm-related offense, which prohibited him from legally possessing a gun. An arrest warrant was issued after the homicide charges were filed because authorities were seeking to take him into custody.
McDade’s death left her family grieving the loss of a teenager who relatives remembered for her close relationship with her family and especially her young sister. Public accounts described how much she cared for the child and how devastated her mother was following the shooting. The case transformed what had begun as a late-night meeting between McDade and her boyfriend into a homicide investigation, with prosecutors alleging that an argument inside the parked vehicle ended when Waheed fired the shot that killed her.
