Demetrius A. Eason, a 44-year-old Black man from Milwaukee, was fatally shot during the early morning hours of June 11, 2017. The violence unfolded at about 12:40 a.m. in the 3200 block of North Buffum Street, near Buffum and Auer on Milwaukee’s north side. Police were called to the area after a double shooting outside a residence. Eason suffered fatal gunshot wounds, while a second adult man was also struck by gunfire and was taken to a local hospital for treatment.
In the immediate aftermath, Milwaukee police said investigators had not yet established exactly what led to the shooting. Detectives were working to determine a motive and identify the person responsible. Eason’s family, however, described the shooting as the result of a misunderstanding. His longtime partner, Belinda Joyner, said Eason had been around people who were gambling when a dispute developed. According to her account, Eason raised his hands and told the armed person that he was not involved in the gambling and did not have money, but the gunman shot him anyway.
Eason was known to friends and relatives by the nickname “Meat.” Joyner, who said she had been his partner for 15 years, described the devastation his death left behind, including the loss suffered by their seven-year-old son. Family and friends gathered shortly after the killing for a vigil near the scene, mourning Eason and calling for justice while police continued searching for the person who fired the shots.
The investigation did not quickly produce an arrest. Police publicly stated that they were looking for a suspect and trying to determine the motive, but no suspect was identified by name in the contemporary reporting. When Eason’s family gathered again almost exactly one year later, they were still searching for answers. His niece Danielle Jackson said the uncertainty surrounding who killed him and why had made the loss especially difficult. Milwaukee police were still reported to be searching for a suspect at that time.
Available public cold-case records continue to list Eason’s death as a murder investigated by the Milwaukee Police Department, and no reliable online source located for this synopsis documents an arrest, criminal charge, trial, or conviction connected to his killing. The surviving shooting victim was reported hospitalized after the attack, but contemporary reports did not publicly identify him or provide information indicating that he was considered a suspect. The available record therefore leaves Eason’s homicide publicly unresolved, with the identity of the person who shot him still undisclosed.
