Ralph “RJ” Taylor III was a 4-year-old Black/African American male whose life ended inside his family’s Milwaukee home on the night of July 10, 2025. Shortly after 9:30 p.m., Milwaukee police were called to an apartment in the 9100 block of North 75th Street, near Northridge Lakes Boulevard, after people reported that a child had been shot. Officers reached a third-floor bedroom and found Ralph critically wounded near the doorway.
Police and Milwaukee Fire Department personnel attempted lifesaving measures, but the injuries were fatal and he was pronounced dead at the scene.
Investigators quickly concluded that what happened inside the bedroom did not match the explanation initially given by Ralph’s father, Ralph Taylor Jr. According to the criminal complaint, Taylor first told police that he had been on the phone when he heard a gunshot and suggested that a bullet must have entered through an open third-floor window. He also told officers there were no firearms in the residence. As detectives examined the room, interviewed witnesses and evaluated the physical evidence, authorities determined that the account was false. Taylor later offered a different version in which the child supposedly found a firearm beneath a pillow and accidentally fired it.
Witness statements described a volatile period leading up to the shooting. Investigators were told that Taylor had been drinking and had become angry earlier in the day, including accusing another child in the household of taking a PlayStation. He later argued with Casandra Taylor, Ralph’s mother, and allegedly broke her computer. A relative told investigators that Taylor then grabbed Ralph by the arm and took him upstairs, saying that the child was staying with him. Approximately a minute after the two went into the bedroom, the relative heard a gunshot. The bedroom door was reportedly locked, and family members banged on it before Taylor eventually opened it. Ralph had suffered the fatal wound.
The medical and physical evidence made the shooting particularly disturbing. Authorities said Ralph had been shot in the head at extremely close range. The criminal complaint described autopsy findings showing a rectangular injury to the front upper gums and teeth that was consistent with the muzzle of the firearm having been placed inside his mouth before it was fired. Investigators later recovered a Glock Model 17 pistol that had been wrapped in plastic bags and concealed inside a plastic storage container in a closet. The complaint stated that blood was found on the firearm.
Police arrested both parents. Ralph Taylor Jr. was charged with first-degree intentional homicide and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. Casandra Taylor was initially charged with neglecting a child resulting in death and straw purchasing a firearm. Prosecutors alleged that she had purchased a firearm for Taylor because his felony record prohibited him from legally possessing one. Investigators also alleged that after the shooting she placed another firearm into a purse and gave the purse to a neighbor.
Taylor eventually went to trial in March 2026. Prosecutors argued that the killing was intentional, pointing to the close-range nature of the wound, the events leading up to the shooting and Taylor’s repeated attempts to conceal what had happened. When Taylor testified in his own defense, he acknowledged lying to police and attempting to cover up the presence of the firearm. He admitted handling the gun recklessly but maintained that the shooting had not been intentional. His defense sought to characterize Ralph’s death as the result of reckless conduct rather than deliberate homicide.
The jury rejected that defense. On March 12, 2026, Taylor was found guilty of first-degree intentional homicide and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. On April 23, Milwaukee County Circuit Judge David Borowski sentenced him to life imprisonment without the possibility of extended supervision, meaning he will not become eligible for release. The judge strongly condemned Taylor’s actions and the false explanations he had offered following the shooting.
Casandra Taylor’s case ultimately ended differently from the charges originally filed against her. On June 22, 2026, she pleaded guilty to harboring or aiding a felon in connection with the aftermath of Ralph’s killing. The court imposed a prison and extended-supervision sentence but stayed its execution and instead ordered her to serve five years on probation. Ralph’s death therefore resulted in criminal convictions involving both parents, with his father receiving a life sentence for intentionally killing him and his mother receiving probation for her role in aiding a felon.
