Lee F. Scott III, a 30-year-old man from Madison, was caught in a burst of gunfire during the early morning hours of July 22, 2025, outside an apartment complex on Madison’s north side. Shortly after 4:00 a.m., police began receiving multiple reports of shots fired in the 2100 block of Schlimgen Avenue, near the Avenue Square Apartments. An Uber driver who was leaving the complex to pick up a customer discovered Scott lying on the ground and called 911.
Responding officers found Scott suffering from multiple gunshot wounds and rushed him to a local hospital with life-threatening injuries.
Investigators quickly came to believe that the shooting was not random. Police gathered physical evidence from the area and began reviewing security-camera footage and other publicly available video connected to the shooting. Authorities said the evidence indicated Scott had been deliberately targeted. While the initial investigation was underway, officers identified people they wanted to question and developed a person of interest. Later that same day, Madison police used the department’s Special Weapons and Tactics Team to execute a search warrant at an apartment in the 700 block of West Washington Avenue. Several people were detained during the operation, and officers recovered a firearm from the apartment. Investigators began working to determine whether that weapon had been used in the shooting.
Scott remained hospitalized for two days as doctors attempted to save his life. He died from his injuries on Thursday, July 24, 2025, rather than on July 22, the date of the shooting. His death caused Madison police to formally shift the investigation from an attempted homicide to a homicide investigation. The Dane County Medical Examiner’s Office later publicly identified him as Lee Scott III and conducted a forensic autopsy on July 26.
As detectives continued examining evidence and video, their investigation focused on Joshua T. Dean. Dean was not at the shooting scene when officers initially arrived, but police located and detained him later on July 22. He remained in custody because of a parole violation while investigators continued building the homicide case. On July 29, Madison police announced that Dean had been arrested in connection with Scott’s death. Police referred charges of first-degree intentional homicide and possession of a firearm by a felon. At the time the arrest was announced, authorities said Dean had not yet been formally charged in court, meaning the allegations remained accusations that would have to be proven through the judicial process.
The investigation was significant because police said the evidence showed Scott had been specifically targeted, rather than struck during an indiscriminate exchange of gunfire. The combination of video evidence, evidence collected from the Schlimgen Avenue scene, the subsequent search of the West Washington Avenue apartment, and the firearm recovered during that search formed part of the investigation that ultimately led police to arrest Dean. Authorities did not immediately disclose a detailed motive or publicly explain the relationship, if any, between Scott and Dean.
Dean remained incarcerated in Dane County into 2026. In April 2026, while being held in the Dane County Jail, authorities accused him of attacking a sheriff’s deputy during an incident inside the jail, resulting in an additional allegation of battery to a law-enforcement officer. Publicly available reporting located regarding Scott’s homicide identifies Dean as the person arrested and accused of the killing, but does not establish that he had been convicted of Scott’s murder.
