On the night of July 27, 2017, Martez Grandberry, a 36-year-old Black man, was shot near North 74th and West Locust streets on Milwaukee's northwest side. Police placed the shooting at approximately 10 p.m. and said a male assailant had shot him at that location.
Wounded, Grandberry fled in a vehicle but crashed a short time later near North 60th and West Townsend streets.
A contemporaneous report described the vehicle as a van and placed the crash beside The Gardens senior housing complex. He was transported to a local hospital, where he died from his injuries.
Milwaukee police began investigating his death as a homicide. In the initial account published on July 28, investigators were still searching for the shooter and working to establish a motive. The report did not identify the assailant by name or explain what had preceded the gunfire. The available online sources reviewed for this case did not establish a subsequent arrest, criminal charges, trial, or conviction connected to Grandberry's killing.
His funeral home obituary identified him by his full name, Martez Donell Grandberry. He was born on June 25, 1981, in Clarksdale, Mississippi, to Marie Grandberry and Alfred Hewley, and received his primary education at Grand Avenue Elementary School. These details preserved part of his life before the shooting that ended it in Milwaukee.
Grandberry's funeral notice announced services for August 7, 2017, at Pilgrim Rest Missionary Baptist Church, 3456 North 38th Street in Milwaukee. Visitation was scheduled to begin at 11 a.m., followed by the funeral at noon, with Northwest Funeral Chapel handling the arrangements. Messages on his memorial page included expressions of love and remembrance from relatives, including a tribute from his son.
