Lee Santos Hernandez, a 39-year-old Hispanic/Latino man, was killed during the early morning hours of Sunday, June 29, 2025, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The shooting happened at approximately 12:30 a.m. near South 20th Street and West Greenfield Avenue, an area on Milwaukee’s south side. Police responding to the scene found Hernandez suffering from gunshot wounds. He died at the scene, turning what began as an overnight shooting response into a homicide investigation.
The Milwaukee County Medical Examiner’s Office later publicly identified the victim as Santos Hernandez.
Investigators moved quickly in the case. Milwaukee police reported that the person suspected of shooting Hernandez was a 38-year-old man. According to police, the suspected gunman was located and arrested after the shooting. Authorities did not describe the circumstances that led to the confrontation in the initial public reports, leaving unanswered whether Hernandez and the suspected shooter knew one another, what may have occurred immediately before the gunfire, or what investigators believed motivated the killing.
The arrest distinguished Hernandez’s killing from several other shootings Milwaukee police were investigating that same day. Police specifically described the arrested individual as the suspect in the homicide and said he had shot and killed the victim. Following the arrest, investigators announced that the case would be presented to the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office for consideration of criminal charges.
Publicly available news reports reviewed for the case do not identify the arrested suspect by name, nor do they provide a subsequent criminal complaint identifying charges filed against him. The available reporting also does not document a later preliminary hearing, trial, plea, conviction, or sentencing connected to Hernandez’s death. What is publicly established is that police arrested a 38-year-old suspected gunman shortly after the June 29 shooting and intended to refer the homicide investigation to prosecutors. The circumstances behind the confrontation and the ultimate prosecutorial disposition were not detailed in the publicly accessible reporting located for the case.
