Raymond Wilson Jr., a 21-year-old Black/African American man, was fatally shot during a confrontation in downtown Milwaukee during the early morning hours of July 19, 2025. The shooting occurred shortly after 2 a.m. in the area of East Juneau Avenue and North Milwaukee Street/North Broadway, immediately adjacent to the Milwaukee School of Engineering campus.
Wilson suffered a fatal gunshot wound, while a 15-year-old who was with him was also shot and survived after being taken to a hospital for treatment.
Investigators soon obtained surveillance footage that captured much of what happened before and during the gunfire. According to the criminal complaint, Wilson was accompanied by the teenager and 21-year-old Dominec Deshawn Gaines Jr. Prosecutors alleged the three had come into contact with a group of people after an earlier encounter in Milwaukee's Water Street entertainment district. The complaint alleged that the confrontation developed into an attempted robbery. Surveillance footage reportedly showed Wilson approaching a group of four people and producing a firearm. The teenager also allegedly pointed a gun at one member of the group while Gaines moved toward that person and began grabbing at the individual's pockets.
The encounter then shifted across Juneau Avenue. According to investigators' description of the surveillance footage, Wilson ran toward another individual who was separate from the original group and appeared to point his firearm at that person. Wilson then turned and began moving back across the street. The unidentified individual opened fire, striking Wilson. The complaint states that Wilson responded by raising his own firearm and firing several rounds in the shooter's direction. Multiple cartridge casings were later recovered from the area, and investigators also recovered a 10mm handgun equipped with a conversion device capable of allowing fully automatic fire.
After being wounded, Wilson made his way back toward the vehicle in which he and the others had arrived but collapsed before they could leave. Surveillance footage reportedly showed Gaines and the teenager attempting to get Wilson into the vehicle as police officers began arriving. The teenager was treated by emergency personnel for his own gunshot injury. Wilson could not be saved. Gaines initially left the immediate view of the surveillance cameras but was subsequently located and arrested.
Although Gaines was arrested in connection with the case, authorities did not accuse him of personally firing the bullet that killed Wilson. The person shown on surveillance footage shooting Wilson was described in court records and contemporary news reports as another, unidentified individual. Police were still searching for that person when prosecutors announced charges. The criminal case against Gaines instead centered on Wisconsin's felony-murder theory: prosecutors alleged that he participated in the underlying attempted armed robbery during which Wilson was killed. Gaines was consequently charged with felony murder as a party to a crime and initially faced the possibility of decades in prison.
Wilson's family remembered him as far more than the circumstances surrounding his death. Relatives said he worked security at Third Street Market Hall and City Social in downtown Milwaukee and was making plans for his future. His sister described him as someone who wanted to pursue music and become a hip-hop artist, while his family remembered him as an uncle, brother, son and friend whose smile could light up a room. His death became one of several highly publicized episodes of downtown gun violence that summer and contributed to renewed public discussion about late-night safety in Milwaukee's entertainment district.
The criminal proceedings against Gaines continued into 2026. The original felony-murder charge was eventually amended, and in March 2026 Gaines was found guilty of attempted armed robbery as a party to a crime. On June 2, 2026, a Milwaukee County judge imposed a sentence of ten years in prison followed by eight years of extended supervision but stayed that sentence, meaning Gaines was not immediately required to serve the prison term. Instead, the court placed him on seven years of probation. The stayed prison and extended-supervision sentence could potentially be imposed if the conditions of that probation are violated.
As of the most recently available reporting, Gaines is therefore the person convicted in connection with the attempted robbery surrounding Wilson's death, but he was not identified as the gunman who actually fired the fatal shot. Public reporting has not identified the individual seen firing at Wilson or reported a separate arrest, prosecution, trial or conviction of that shooter. The available evidence instead describes Wilson's death as occurring amid an armed confrontation connected to the alleged robbery attempt, with Gaines ultimately held criminally responsible for his role in the events that led to the fatal encounter.
