Darrius Rose, a 26-year-old Black/African American man, was killed on the morning of October 29, 2017, in Milwaukee. At approximately 9:00 a.m., Rose was sitting inside a vehicle near West Silver Spring Drive and North Teutonia Avenue when gunfire came from another vehicle. The shooter or shooters then fled. Rose was pronounced dead at the scene, and the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner’s Office responded as police began investigating the homicide.
At the time, authorities publicly said they were still trying to determine a motive and identify those responsible.
The investigation eventually placed Rose’s death within a much larger series of violent incidents that occurred across Milwaukee and into Menomonee Falls during the final months of 2017. Prosecutors later alleged that Caleb Virgil and Davion Pickens were involved in more than 20 criminal acts over roughly six weeks, including shootings, stolen vehicles, drug-related activity and confrontations connected to rival groups. Investigators described disputes involving robberies, marijuana, counterfeit money and retaliation that escalated into repeated gunfire and vehicle chases. Authorities said more than 250 rounds were fired from eight firearms during the overall crime spree.
According to prosecutors, Rose was not an intended participant in those disputes. Investigators eventually concluded that Caleb Virgil shot Rose in the parking lot of the North Bay Shopping Mall in what prosecutors described as a case of mistaken identity. The shooting occurred amid the escalating conflicts between the groups, but Rose was described in subsequent reporting as an innocent bystander rather than someone involved in the feud.
The investigation also produced physical evidence linking Virgil to the killing. A few days after Rose was shot, police arrested Virgil at his home. Authorities reported finding what investigators identified as the firearm used in Rose’s homicide, along with a cut GPS monitoring bracelet, a sawed-off shotgun and prescription pills. The discovery helped transform what had initially been a homicide investigation with unidentified fleeing suspects into a prosecution tied to the broader pattern of violence investigators were reconstructing.
By early 2020, Milwaukee County prosecutors had formally connected Virgil and Pickens to the six-week crime spree. Virgil was specifically accused of killing Rose, while Pickens was accused in the separate November 2017 killing of Xavier Barfield. Court records described the two as associates involved in the same network of violent confrontations, although authorities attributed Rose’s fatal shooting to Virgil.
The prosecution of Virgil ultimately ended with a negotiated guilty plea rather than a homicide trial. On March 1, 2022, Virgil pleaded guilty to second-degree reckless homicide and second-degree recklessly endangering safety. Four additional charges were dismissed as part of the plea agreement. Prosecutors continued to identify Virgil as the person who shot and killed Rose during the mistaken-identity shooting at the shopping center.
In May 2022, a Milwaukee County judge sentenced Virgil to 13 years in prison, followed by another 13 years of extended supervision. The sentence resolved Virgil’s prosecution arising from the violent 2017 crime spree and provided a final criminal disposition in the case authorities had linked to Rose’s death. What began on October 29, 2017, as an apparently unexplained vehicle-to-vehicle shooting was ultimately described by prosecutors as the fatal consequence of an unrelated feud in which Rose was mistakenly targeted.
