Donovan Hines, a 23-year-old Black/African American man, was killed during the early morning hours of November 13, 2017, on Milwaukee’s north side. Shortly before 1:00 a.m., Hines was driving near North 29th Street and West Hampton Avenue when gunfire struck the vehicle. After he was shot, the vehicle continued forward, crashed through a fence and slammed into a residence in the 4700 block of North 29th Street. Hines was pronounced dead at the scene.
A witness living nearby reported hearing roughly a dozen gunshots before seeing the vehicle crash.
Years later, Hines’ mother, Brenda Hines, provided additional details about the circumstances surrounding that night. She said he had left home during the evening and was driving a friend’s car when he was killed. According to her, the vehicle was struck by gunfire approximately 14 times. Separate reporting later revealed that Hines had advertised informal driving services on Facebook that night, offering rides in a manner similar to a private Uber or Lyft service. He reportedly stopped at a gas station and called his girlfriend, asking whether he could pick her up. She declined, and less than an hour later he was dead. His mother later wondered whether that telephone call and his behavior suggested that he may have been uneasy or concerned about something shortly before the shooting.
Investigators did not publicly identify a shooter in the immediate aftermath. Milwaukee police said they were searching for suspects and attempting to determine a motive. The large amount of gunfire directed toward the vehicle raised unanswered questions about what had happened before the shooting and whether Hines himself had been deliberately targeted. His mother has said she does not know why he was killed. In later years, she said she had considered whether the shooting might have been connected to an ongoing disagreement involving a vehicle or possibly a dispute involving a woman, but neither possibility has been publicly established by police as the motive. No publicly identified suspect has been tied to either theory.
The killing was especially devastating for Brenda Hines because she was already serving as a Salvation Army chaplain working in partnership with the Milwaukee Police Department, regularly helping families cope with shootings, homicides and other traumatic events. The day after her son was killed, fellow chaplains and community members gathered near 29th and Hampton for a vigil. Rather than withdrawing from that work permanently, she eventually created the Donovan Hines Foundation of Exuberance, using her experience to provide grief support and other assistance to families affected by violence.
Despite repeated public appeals for information, the investigation has produced no publicly announced arrest, criminal charge, trial or conviction. In 2024, the case was still described as an open homicide investigation with no arrests or charges filed. Reporting in 2025 continued to identify Hines’ killing as unsolved, and his mother said investigators still did not have enough evidence to resolve the case. She has continued to believe that people in the community know what happened and has repeatedly urged anyone with information to come forward. As the years have passed, no suspect has been publicly named and no one has been held criminally responsible for Hines’ death.
