Coretta Delores Israel, a 56-year-old Black/African American woman, was killed during a barrage of gunfire in Milwaukee during the early morning hours of March 13, 2025. Online memorial information identifies her as Coretta Delores Israel, while local news reports and funeral notices commonly identified her as Delores or Delores C. Isreal. Police were called at approximately 2:30 a.m.
to the area of North 107th Street and West Stark Street, a residential neighborhood a short distance from Timmerman Airport. There, officers found Israel and her adult son inside a white Buick that had been riddled with bullets. Israel suffered fatal gunshot injuries, while her son, who was described by investigators as nonverbal, was grazed in the chest by a bullet and survived.
Investigators found evidence of an extraordinarily heavy burst of gunfire directed at the Buick. According to the criminal complaint, the driver's side of the vehicle had at least 19 bullet strikes. Police recovered 21 cartridge casings from the scene, including 14 believed to have been fired from a rifle and seven from a handgun. Authorities came to believe that Israel and her son had been living in the vehicle at the time. Nothing in the publicly available reporting indicated that Israel or her son had been accused of threatening the men who approached them before the shooting.
The investigation quickly focused on a white Ford seen in surveillance footage from the neighborhood. Although cameras from nearby homes apparently did not record the actual shooting, investigators said the footage documented the suspects arriving in the area and leaving afterward. The Ford had distinctive damage that helped police identify it as a vehicle connected to the shooting. Several hours after Israel was killed, a Milwaukee police officer spotted a vehicle matching that description near 24th Street and Melvina Street and attempted to stop it.
Instead of stopping, the Ford sped away, beginning a police pursuit that continued for more than four miles. The chase ended after the vehicle crashed into a fence near 1st Street and Concordia Avenue. Three people reportedly got out and ran. Police captured Henry Tyler, who investigators said had been driving, in a nearby yard. Officers said they found a rifle flash suppressor in Tyler's pocket. Amarion Washington, who had been riding in the back seat, was also apprehended. A third person escaped at that time.
Washington later gave detectives an account that helped authorities reconstruct what allegedly happened before Israel was killed. According to the criminal complaint, Washington said he had been riding with Tyler and another person when someone contacted Tyler about a "suspicious" vehicle parked outside a residence. Tyler allegedly drove Washington and the other person to where Israel's Buick was parked. Washington told investigators that he and the other man got out and approached the Buick. Washington reportedly tugged on a door handle, causing the woman inside to scream. When she appeared to be preparing to drive away, Washington said that he and the person accompanying him backed away and opened fire on the car.
The two alleged shooters then ran back to Tyler's Ford, and Tyler allegedly drove them away. Investigators later searched Tyler's residence and recovered a rifle. A preliminary forensic examination determined that the weapon was the rifle that had fired the 14 rifle casings recovered near Israel's Buick, providing investigators with physical evidence connecting a firearm associated with Tyler's residence to the shooting scene.
Prosecutors charged Amarion Washington, then 20, with first-degree reckless homicide and first-degree recklessly endangering safety in connection with Israel's killing and the gunfire that endangered her son. His cash bond was initially set at $100,000. Henry Tyler, then 35, was charged with harboring or aiding a felon, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, fleeing or eluding an officer, and second-degree recklessly endangering safety. Tyler's bond was also initially set at $100,000. The homicide charge against Washington reflected prosecutors' allegation that he was one of the people who actually opened fire on the Buick, while the allegations against Tyler focused on his role in transporting the men, possessing the weapon connected to the scene, and fleeing from police afterward.
The investigation did not end with those initial arrests. Months later, Milwaukee County prosecutors identified the previously unidentified third man as Bookie Simmons-Matthews. In November 2025, Simmons-Matthews, then 19, was charged with first-degree reckless homicide and first-degree recklessly endangering safety in connection with the same shooting. Court records reported by local media indicated that a warrant was issued for his arrest. Simmons-Matthews had previously been charged with misdemeanor resisting or obstructing an officer for an incident occurring on the day of the homicide, had been released on a signature bond, and later failed to appear in that case, resulting in a bench warrant in April 2025.
The charges against Washington and Simmons-Matthews mean prosecutors ultimately alleged that two men participated directly in the gunfire that killed Israel, while Tyler was accused of assisting them and fleeing with them afterward. The account presented in the criminal complaint portrays Israel's death as stemming from the men confronting her vehicle because it had been considered "suspicious," followed within moments by multiple shots from a rifle and handgun as she apparently tried to get away. The publicly available reporting located for the case establishes the arrests and charges and the later identification of Simmons-Matthews, but does not establish that the homicide defendants have been convicted at trial or sentenced. As a result, the allegations against Washington, Tyler, and Simmons-Matthews remain accusations unless and until resolved through the court process.
