Revall McKnight, a 64-year-old Black/African American man, was fatally shot during the early morning hours of January 26, 2025, on Milwaukee’s northwest side. Milwaukee police were called to the area of North 89th Street and West Mill Road at approximately 1:45 a.m., where McKnight was found suffering from gunshot injuries. He was pronounced dead at the scene, and the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner’s Office later confirmed his identity.
Investigators later developed a clearer picture of the violence that preceded McKnight’s death. According to information contained in a search warrant and reported by Milwaukee media, the shooting apparently grew out of an earlier confrontation at a bar. A friend who was with McKnight told investigators that after leaving the establishment, she got into a vehicle with McKnight behind the wheel. Another vehicle, occupied by two people, reportedly followed or approached them, and gunfire was directed toward McKnight’s vehicle. The passenger accompanying McKnight told investigators that she returned fire. McKnight was struck during the exchange and did not survive.
Police used surveillance evidence and other investigative leads to identify a vehicle believed to have been involved. Investigators reportedly recovered fingerprints connected to that vehicle, and those prints helped lead authorities to Martez Grandberry Jr., who was being sought as a suspect in McKnight’s homicide. On January 30, officers surrounded an apartment complex near North 45th Street and West Hampton Avenue while attempting to take Grandberry into custody. After officers repeatedly ordered him to surrender, Grandberry jumped headfirst from a second-story window and attempted to run away. Officers captured him after a short pursuit. Police subsequently searched the apartment and recovered a firearm along with property that investigators said identified Grandberry.
Grandberry was later formally charged with resisting an officer and two counts of bail jumping in connection with the circumstances surrounding his arrest and an earlier criminal case. Court records cited in news reporting indicated that one of the bail-jumping allegations was tied to a December 2024 case in which he had already been accused of recklessly endangering safety and operating a vehicle without a valid license. Although Milwaukee police publicly identified Grandberry as a suspect in the January 26 homicide investigation, reporting published on February 4, 2025 stated that prosecutors had not charged him with McKnight’s killing at that time.
Investigators also indicated that another person was part of the homicide inquiry. Records associated with the search warrant showed that a second individual connected with the suspected vehicle was in custody during the early stages of the investigation. Authorities had information suggesting that the vehicle involved in the shooting contained two occupants when shots were fired toward McKnight’s vehicle. Publicly available reporting did not clearly identify that second individual or announce homicide charges against that person.
The case therefore progressed from an initially unsolved roadside shooting to the identification and arrest of a significant suspect within several days. Grandberry’s apprehension, the recovery of a firearm, the fingerprint evidence, surveillance information, and the eyewitness account gave investigators multiple pieces of evidence to examine. However, the publicly available reports located for the case do not establish that Grandberry was subsequently charged, tried, or convicted for McKnight’s death. The most specific published update identified him as a homicide suspect while making clear that the criminal charges filed against him at that stage concerned resisting police and bail jumping rather than McKnight’s killing.
