Jaquan Calhoun, a 25-year-old Black/African American man, was fatally shot on the evening of November 2, 2025, inside the Chicken Palace restaurant in the 1100 block of Washington Avenue in Racine, Wisconsin. Later police-linked reports sometimes spelled his first name “Jaquon,” but contemporary coverage based on information from his family identified him as Jaquan.
The violence unfolded shortly before 5:30 p.m., when Racine police were dispatched to the area of Washington Avenue and 11th Street after reports of gunfire. Officers found Calhoun suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. He was rushed to Ascension All Saints Hospital, where he died from his injuries.
The shooting erupted suddenly inside the restaurant while employees were working. Chicken Palace owner Marcela Rodriguez said a gunman came rapidly through the door and opened fire throughout the business. She estimated that approximately 24 shots were fired. Afterward, numerous bullet holes could be seen in the restaurant's walls, windows, equipment and other areas. Rodriguez dropped to the floor as the gunfire continued and later expressed disbelief that others inside had escaped injury. Investigators initially released little information about what had prompted the attack or who the shooter was.
Calhoun's death devastated his family. His cousin, Von Marshall, said relatives were shocked when they learned what had happened and described Calhoun as a good person who had been looking forward to his future. According to Marshall, Calhoun was expecting his first child and was focused on taking care of his wife and baby. Those plans ended abruptly with the restaurant shooting, leaving his relatives trying to understand why he had been targeted.
As detectives investigated, the killing took on greater significance because it came only a day after another homicide in Racine. During the early morning hours of November 1, Cier Tye-Pearson was shot and killed near the 400 block of 10th Street. Police ultimately concluded that the two killings were connected. Authorities said they believed Calhoun's shooting at Chicken Palace was a targeted act of retaliation for Tye-Pearson's killing, and investigators were examining both homicides, along with additional gun violence that followed, as gang- or group-related violence. Police did not publicly say that Calhoun himself was a gang member, and the description of the homicide as gang-related should not be interpreted as establishing such an affiliation.
The investigation into Tye-Pearson's death produced several arrests. On November 13, police took Isaiah McGlorn and Chihene Davis into custody, and Zharon Smith was apprehended the following day. Davis and McGlorn were charged with first-degree intentional homicide, attempted homicide, firearm offenses and bail-jumping counts in connection with Tye-Pearson's killing. Smith also faced homicide and attempted-homicide charges as a party to a crime, along with bail-jumping allegations. Investigators alleged that Davis and McGlorn were the gunmen in the Tye-Pearson attack and that Smith was involved as the driver.
Those arrests, however, did not solve Calhoun's homicide. Racine police specifically said that no charges had been referred in his killing and that the Chicken Palace case remained an active investigation. Reports about the three men arrested in the connected November 1 homicide did not identify them as the people responsible for shooting Calhoun. Instead, investigators continued searching for whoever carried out the retaliatory attack at the restaurant and appealed to anyone with information to come forward.
Available online reporting does not identify a publicly named shooter in Calhoun's death or document an arrest, criminal charge, trial or conviction for his killing. The most recent reliable reports located continued to describe the homicide as unsolved, with investigators seeking suspects responsible for the Chicken Palace shooting. Although police developed a theory that the attack was retaliation for the killing that occurred the previous day, the identity of the person or people who entered the restaurant and opened fire had not been publicly established.
