Antwaun Lorance Lucas, a 28-year-old Black/African American man, was killed during an early-morning shooting on May 13, 2025, near North Teutonia Avenue and West North Avenue in Milwaukee’s Lindsey Heights neighborhood. Milwaukee police were dispatched to the area at approximately 12:25 a.m. after receiving a report of a shooting. When officers arrived, they found Lucas lying on the sidewalk in front of a residence with gunshot injuries.
Officers and other emergency personnel attempted lifesaving measures, but Lucas died at the scene.
The investigation initially offered few public answers. Police recovered five spent 9mm cartridge casings from the area and began collecting surveillance footage from nearby properties. Three separate recordings became important to the investigation. According to the later criminal complaint, one camera showed a person dressed entirely in black walking backward along the west side of Teutonia Avenue while firing a handgun toward the north. Muzzle flashes could reportedly be seen as the shots were fired. Afterward, the person turned and ran south on Teutonia Avenue. Two additional recordings captured a similarly dressed person during the same period.
Investigators extracted an image of the person recorded by the surveillance system and showed it to a woman who lived at a nearby apartment complex. She identified the person depicted in the image as Itavis Wesley. The identification eventually helped investigators focus on Wesley, although an arrest did not come immediately. For approximately four months after Lucas was killed, the homicide remained publicly reported as a case in which police were seeking an unknown shooter.
Milwaukee police arrested Wesley on September 15, 2025. During an interview with detectives the following day, investigators showed him the surveillance image. According to the criminal complaint, Wesley acknowledged that the person pictured was him. He initially denied being the shooter, reportedly telling detectives that he had been on his way to a gas station near North Avenue and 12th Street when he heard gunfire and ran.
His account changed as the interview continued. Wesley reportedly told detectives that a man wearing a mask and glasses had been approaching him. When investigators directly asked whether he had fired a gun, Wesley answered that he had. According to the complaint, Wesley claimed the other man reached toward his pocket and that he fired because he believed he needed to defend himself. The criminal complaint therefore presented the shooting not as an unidentified attack but as one in which Wesley acknowledged firing while asserting that he acted in self-defense. The allegations against him remained subject to proof in court.
Prosecutors charged Wesley, then 38, with one count of first-degree reckless homicide in connection with Lucas's death. He appeared in Milwaukee County court for an initial appearance on September 20, 2025, where a judge set cash bond at $75,000. A preliminary hearing was scheduled for September 26. The publicly accessible news reporting located on the case documents the arrest, charge and initial court proceedings, but does not provide a reliably documented later trial verdict, conviction, acquittal or sentencing outcome.
