Charmaine William, a 29-year-old Black/African American woman, was fatally shot on the evening of August 6, 2025, during what investigators and her family described as an apparent road-rage encounter on Milwaukee’s north side. William was traveling in an SUV with her boyfriend, her nine-year-old son and her two-year-old niece when a confrontation developed with a man riding a motorcycle. She was a mother of four whose family later described her as deeply devoted to her children.
According to the criminal complaint, William’s son told detectives that the motorcycle struck the rear of their vehicle. The motorcycle rider then allegedly came around the SUV on the driver’s side, pulled a handgun from between his legs and opened fire through the windshield. The child witnessed the attack and later gave police a description of both the rider and the cruiser-style motorcycle. Authorities ultimately identified the alleged gunman as Larry Jefferson.
Milwaukee police were called shortly after 8:30 p.m. Officers encountered the SUV near North 31st Street and West Fairmount Avenue, close to William’s home. The vehicle had apparent bullet damage to its windshield and fresh collision damage to the rear. William had suffered multiple gunshot wounds and did not survive. Investigators did not find spent cartridge casings where the SUV came to rest, leading them to conclude that the actual shooting had occurred somewhere else.
Police used ShotSpotter information to focus on North Sherman Boulevard just south of Hampton Avenue. At that location, detectives recovered five brass CCI. 45-caliber cartridge casings from the roadway. Surveillance footage from the area reportedly captured sounds consistent with screeching tires followed by five gunshots. Immediately afterward, the video showed a motorcycle traveling northbound on Sherman Boulevard, followed closely by an SUV matching the vehicle in which William was found.
Investigators began piecing together the identity of the motorcyclist through William’s son’s description, surveillance video and Flock license-plate-reader cameras. The rider was described as wearing a vest or jacket displaying motorcycle-club patches. Police subsequently examined social-media photographs connected to the Cliqueriders MC motorcycle group. Investigators reported finding photographs posted shortly before the killing that showed a younger man resembling the suspect description, including short hair and a chin beard, wearing motorcycle-club clothing. In one photograph, the man was reportedly sitting on a black cruiser-style motorcycle, and another image showed him with a handgun equipped with an extended magazine tucked into his waistband.
Authorities submitted an image of the man through an automatic facial-recognition system, and Larry Jefferson was identified as the top result. Investigators then compared the motorcycle depicted in the social-media material with images collected through the Flock camera system. According to the complaint, those images were consistent with the motorcycle seen following William’s SUV around the time of the shooting. Police obtained a search warrant for Jefferson’s residence as the investigation narrowed around him.
During the search, detectives recovered a motorcycle-club vest they said was consistent with what the suspected rider had been wearing. They also recovered a black Glock 30. 45-caliber handgun with a holster and extended magazine. The weapon contained brass CCI. 45-caliber ammunition, the same manufacturer as the casings found at the homicide scene. Investigators submitted the handgun for ballistic analysis, and authorities reported that the testing was consistent with the Glock having fired all five cartridge casings recovered from the roadway. An AR-15-style rifle was also reportedly recovered from Jefferson’s residence.
Jefferson was arrested and charged with first-degree reckless homicide and possession of a firearm by a felon. Court records cited by Milwaukee media indicated that Jefferson had a prior felony record, making his alleged possession of the firearm a separate criminal offense. Prosecutors presented the shooting as an apparently senseless encounter arising from the collision between the motorcycle and William’s vehicle rather than reporting evidence that William and Jefferson had an established relationship or that she had been deliberately sought out beforehand.
Jefferson made his initial appearance in Milwaukee County Circuit Court on August 11, 2025, where cash bond was set at $300,000. At a preliminary hearing on August 19, a detective testified about the investigation, and the court found probable cause to move the case forward. Jefferson was bound over for trial and entered not-guilty pleas to the charges. The arrest brought some relief to William’s family, but relatives made clear that taking a suspect into custody could not undo the loss suffered by her children and loved ones.
William’s nine-year-old son was left with one of the most painful unanswered questions in the case. According to the complaint, after witnessing the shooting he asked a detective why someone had killed his mother and whether police would someday be able to explain it to him. William’s family characterized the killing as an inexplicable act of violence that took her life only moments before the vehicle reached the place she had made a home for her children. Available online reporting located for this synopsis documents Jefferson’s arrest, charges, $300,000 bond and not-guilty pleas, but does not establish a subsequent conviction or final trial disposition.
