Jesus “Chucho” Valladares, an 11-year-old boy, died on the night of May 16, 2025, after he was shot inside a home in the 2600 block of Prospect Street in Racine, Wisconsin. Racine police were called to the area near Prospect and Howard streets at about 10:33 p.m. Family members did not wait for an ambulance; they rushed Jesus to a local hospital themselves. Despite efforts to save him, he died from a single gunshot wound. He was later identified by the medical examiner as Jesus Valladares.
The shooting initially appeared to be a devastating accident within the family. Police said Jesus had been shot by a sibling, and investigators quickly identified and took that sibling into custody. Relatives later confirmed that the person holding the gun was Jesus’s 16-year-old brother, Pedro Sauceda. As investigators interviewed family members and reconstructed what happened inside the house, the circumstances surrounding the gun became a central part of the case.
According to the criminal complaint, another sibling told investigators that she had placed a single round into the firearm earlier that day. She reportedly intended to fire the gun while the family was visiting a cemetery in remembrance of a deceased relative, but she did not fire it and the round remained in the weapon when the family returned home. Investigators were also told that Pedro and Jesus had engaged in play-fighting with the gun on numerous previous occasions. The sister reportedly said such play-fighting had happened more than 50 times, but the firearm was normally believed to be unloaded. On May 16, however, it was not.
Prosecutors alleged that Pedro was handling and playing with the firearm inside the house when Jesus tried to take it away from him because Pedro was not supposed to have the gun. During that interaction, the firearm discharged and struck Jesus at extremely close range. Medical personnel observed what appeared to be burn marks around the bullet hole in his clothing, while investigators described a dark circular area surrounding the wound. Those findings led authorities to believe the muzzle of the gun had been either very close to Jesus or possibly pressed against him when it fired.
Jesus’s grandmother told investigators that she heard the gunshot from the living room and then discovered Pedro holding the firearm while Jesus was on the floor, struggling to breathe and appearing purple. The family immediately tried to save him and transported him to Ascension All Saints, but the injury proved fatal. When police arrived at the home, according to the complaint, Pedro was kneeling outside or near the scene and repeatedly asked officers to kill him. Authorities said that despite being ordered to lie down, he stood and approached the officers before they physically restrained him and took him into custody.
What police first described publicly as an accidental shooting nevertheless resulted in a serious homicide charge. On May 21, 2025, prosecutors charged Pedro Sauceda with first-degree reckless homicide with use of a dangerous weapon. Prosecutors argued that although there was no allegation that Pedro had deliberately set out to kill Jesus, handling and play-fighting with a firearm created an extraordinarily dangerous situation and that the shooting was avoidable. A court commissioner set Sauceda’s cash bond at $150,000, and a preliminary hearing was scheduled for May 28. The online sources located for this synopsis document his arrest, charge and initial court appearance but do not establish a later trial verdict, guilty plea, conviction or sentence.
Away from the investigation and court case, Jesus’s family remembered him for much more than the circumstances of his death. Born August 28, 2013, he was a fifth-grade student at Wadewitz Elementary School and was known within his family as “Chu-Cho” or “Chucho.” His obituary described a cheerful child who enjoyed basketball, video games, spending time on TikTok and helping at a scrap yard. Relatives said he had a gift for making people smile and described him as energetic, kind and constantly outdoors. His cousin recalled that he was especially willing to help his grandmother after the family had endured another death only months earlier.
The shooting left the Valladares family mourning one child while also facing the possibility that another would spend years dealing with the criminal consequences of what happened. Relatives publicly emphasized the dangers of young people having easy access to firearms, saying that one decision to carry and handle a gun had permanently changed their entire family. In the days after Jesus’s death, balloons and candles appeared outside the family home as neighbors and friends remembered him, while a fundraiser was organized to help cover funeral and memorial expenses. What began as teenagers treating a firearm as though it were something they could safely play with ended in a fatal gunshot, the loss of Jesus, and a first-degree reckless homicide prosecution against his older brother.
