Daquell Collins was a 6-year-old Black/African American male from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, affectionately known by his family as “King.” On the night of April 1, 2025, Daquell was inside the family home in the 4200 block of North 51st Boulevard, near 51st Street and Hope Avenue. He was only days away from celebrating his next birthday. What began as an ordinary evening ended in tragedy when a gun inside the home became accessible to him.
According to the criminal complaint, Daquell’s grandmother, Alesia Collins, said she went to bed at approximately 8:30 p.m. after making sure Daquell was in bed. About an hour later, she was awakened by a loud bang. When she went into the living room, she found Daquell on the floor with a severe gunshot injury. At 9:29 p.m., she called 911 and told the dispatcher that she believed her grandchild had shot himself. Milwaukee police arrived within minutes, followed by paramedics. Officers immediately began CPR, and Milwaukee Fire Department personnel continued efforts to save Daquell, but he could not be revived. He was pronounced dead at the residence at approximately 9:40 p.m.
Investigators found a firearm on the floor near Daquell when they entered the home. The weapon was subsequently identified as a gray Palmetto State Armory 9mm semiautomatic handgun. Investigators reported that it contained a spent casing. Police also discovered a bullet hole through blinds near a living-room window, with the projectile apparently continuing into the window frame and wall. An unopened gun lock was later located inside the packaging where the firearm had reportedly been stored. An autopsy conducted the following day determined that Daquell died from complications of a single gunshot wound to the head. Authorities ultimately treated the shooting as an accidental self-inflicted discharge involving an unsecured firearm.
The investigation quickly turned to the adults who had access to the firearms inside the residence. Daquell’s mother, Daquela Collins, told investigators she had purchased the Palmetto 9mm approximately a month before the shooting and normally kept it in a gun bag in a closet. She acknowledged that the weapon was not secured with the gun lock. She also told detectives that her brother, Quintell Collins, lived in the basement of the residence and routinely carried a handgun even though she knew he was a convicted felon who was legally prohibited from possessing firearms.
Investigators discovered especially troubling evidence concerning what happened earlier on the day Daquell died. At approximately 11:28 a.m., Quintell sent Daquela an Instagram video showing himself inside the home rapping while handling two firearms. One was identified as Daquela’s Palmetto handgun, while the other belonged to Quintell. Daquell could be seen on the couch in the background. Daquela responded by telling Quintell to put her firearm down, and Quintell responded with a laughing emoji. Later that afternoon, Daquela contacted her mother and asked her to tell Quintell to stop handling the weapon.
Evidence recovered from Daquela’s phone showed the concern about firearms around Daquell had existed before the fatal shooting. In one March 21 message to Quintell, Daquela warned him not to leave a firearm lying around the home because Daquell kept talking about it. Other messages documented repeated conversations concerning firearms, ammunition and potential firearm sales. Investigators alleged the communications also showed that Daquela had obtained a firearm for Quintell despite knowing his felony record prohibited him from legally possessing one.
Surveillance footage added another layer to the investigation. A camera from a nearby residence captured two people leaving the Collins home immediately after the shooting while police sirens could be heard approaching. One of those people was later identified as Quintell. The footage showed him going into the alley and placing an object underneath a garbage container. Police searched the location and recovered a loaded Springfield Armory 9mm handgun equipped with an extended magazine. Surveillance footage later showed people returning to the alley and searching beneath the garbage containers after police had already recovered the weapon.
Quintell was arrested after additional investigative activity on April 3. According to the criminal complaint, when police attempted to stop him, he fled in a vehicle and led officers on a pursuit lasting several miles. Authorities accused him of running stop signs and red lights, traveling into opposing traffic and driving onto a sidewalk before stop sticks were deployed and he was taken into custody. Investigators also said Quintell had admitted to his grandmother that he had been inside the residence when Daquell was shot and that he had fled afterward and hidden his firearm beneath a garbage container.
On April 6, 2025, prosecutors filed extensive charges against Quintell Collins. The original counts included neglecting a child resulting in death as a party to a crime, second-degree reckless homicide, two counts of possession of a firearm by a felon, second-degree recklessly endangering safety, fleeing or attempting to elude an officer and obstructing an officer, with habitual-criminality allegations attached to several charges. Prosecutors alleged that Quintell’s illegal possession and handling of firearms and his failure to safeguard them helped create the circumstances in which Daquell was killed.
Daquela Collins was also criminally charged. Prosecutors initially accused her of neglecting a child resulting in death as a party to a crime and straw purchasing a firearm. The prosecution maintained that she knew Quintell was prohibited from possessing firearms but nevertheless participated in obtaining one for him and allowed firearms to remain accessible inside a home where Daquell was present.
The cases eventually resulted in guilty pleas rather than trials. In March 2026, Quintell pleaded guilty to multiple charges, including child neglect, firearm-possession offenses and second-degree recklessly endangering safety. The second-degree reckless-homicide charge contained in the original complaint was not among the offenses identified in reports describing his final guilty pleas. Judge Michelle Havas ultimately sentenced Quintell to a total of 17 years of imprisonment followed by 14 years of extended supervision. Because he was already serving time connected to an earlier case, the sentence stemming from Daquell’s death was ordered to follow the remaining portion of that sentence.
Daquela’s scheduled jury trial did not take place. On May 26, 2026, the day the trial was scheduled to begin, she pleaded guilty to neglecting a child with the consequence of bodily harm as a party to a crime and straw purchasing a firearm. At her sentencing on July 16, 2026, her attorney requested probation and argued that the loss of Daquell had already imposed an extraordinary personal consequence. Prosecutors likewise acknowledged the magnitude of her loss while emphasizing the seriousness of the firearm conduct. Judge Havas rejected probation, citing the circumstances surrounding the unsecured weapons and the violation of firearm laws. Daquela was sentenced to three years in prison followed by three years of extended supervision.
Daquell’s family remembered him for far more than the circumstances of his death. His father described him as energetic, loving, interested in school and happiest when spending time outdoors, going on car rides, visiting parks and walking trails. Relatives and friends gathered for a vigil on what would have been his birthday, remembering “King” as a child filled with personality, smiles and promise. His death ultimately became the center of two criminal prosecutions focused on how illegally possessed and unsecured firearms came to be within his reach, culminating in prison sentences for both his mother and his uncle.
