Rainier Sheridan was a 36-year-old Black man whose life ended in a burst of gunfire outside the Milwaukee home he shared with his mother on February 16, 2017. Sheridan was behind the residence in the 4400 block of North 64th Street, apparently retrieving something from a vehicle, when he was shot. Despite being badly wounded, he managed to make his way back inside the house.
At about 1:30 p.m., Sheridan himself called 911 and reported that he had been shot, giving dispatchers the address before he stopped responding to their questions.
When Milwaukee police arrived, no one answered the door. Officers went around to the backyard and found a black Buick with its driver's door open and the inside appearing disturbed. Keys were lying in the grass and blood was visible on the concrete near the vehicle. The back door of the residence was open, allowing officers to enter. Inside, they found Sheridan on the floor suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. He was placed in an ambulance but died while being transported to the hospital. An autopsy later determined that he had been shot four times, and his death was ruled a homicide.
Witness accounts began giving investigators a picture of what had happened. One neighbor reported hearing several gunshots from the alley, apparently fired from the same weapon. Another heard an argument followed by gunfire. A witness told police that a man carrying a gun was seen running through the alley behind North 64th Street and getting into the driver's seat of a beige Chevrolet Tahoe. One unusual feature stood out: the Tahoe's front license plate was partially hanging off the vehicle. The SUV then left the area.
Investigators also connected Sheridan's shooting with another violent incident reported roughly 45 minutes earlier near Sherman Boulevard and Capitol Drive. At about 12:45 p.m., witnesses reported seeing a black automobile being chased by a tan Chevrolet SUV, possibly a Tahoe. The SUV's driver was reportedly leaning partly out of the driver's window and firing at the black car. Surveillance footage captured the two vehicles and showed the SUV driver with an arm extended from the window in a manner consistent with the reported shooting. Video from a Milwaukee County Transit System bus also showed the Chevrolet with a front license plate hanging down. No shell casings were recovered from that scene, which investigators said could have been consistent with the use of a revolver or with casings being disturbed by traffic.
For months, the investigation produced no public arrest in Sheridan's killing. In January 2018, however, one of Sheridan's relatives contacted detectives and provided information concerning Rickey Brown Jr. According to the later criminal complaint, Sheridan had begun dating a woman around Christmas 2016 whose former boyfriend was Brown. The relative told investigators that Brown had allegedly assaulted the woman because she was dating Sheridan and that Sheridan had said Brown was stalking the couple. Detectives subsequently located records from a December 17, 2016 police call involving Brown and the woman. Body-camera footage from that incident showed Brown and a beige Chevrolet Tahoe whose front license plate was attached by only one screw, a detail that investigators believed resembled the vehicle described by witnesses to Sheridan's killing. Records also showed that Brown owned a Chevrolet Tahoe, and several witnesses later described photographs of that vehicle as consistent with the SUV they had seen.
Brown was arrested on February 8, 2018, during the investigation, and police seized his cellphone as evidence, although court filings cited in later reporting did not indicate how long he remained in custody or establish that homicide charges were filed against him at that time. Investigators obtained cellphone records showing extensive communications among Brown, the woman and Sheridan on the day of the killing. Tower data allegedly placed Brown's phone in the vicinity of Capitol Drive shortly before Sheridan's death and, at about 1:00 p.m., near 60th Street and Fond du Lac Avenue, an area that included Sheridan's residence but not Brown's own home.
The case remained unresolved for years, but detectives returned to Brown's seized cellphone in 2025 and examined it using more advanced forensic software. That examination reportedly uncovered material investigators had not previously been able to access. Among the discoveries were screenshots of text conversations between Sheridan and the woman showing what prosecutors described as an argument on the morning of the homicide. Investigators also recovered photographs they said were consistent with having been taken by Brown's cellphone from inside a Chevrolet Tahoe. The images were time-stamped roughly half an hour before the homicide and reportedly showed locations along the route toward Sheridan's neighborhood, including 60th Street and Fond du Lac Avenue and 63rd Street and Congress Street. Other images appeared to show a house on the block where Sheridan was killed.
Nearly nine years after Sheridan's death, prosecutors filed a criminal case against Rickey Brown Jr. In January 2026, Brown, then reported to be 40, was charged with first-degree reckless homicide in connection with Sheridan's killing. Wisconsin Circuit Court records reviewed by news organizations showed that an arrest warrant had been issued for Brown. The charge represents an accusation, and Brown is presumed innocent unless proven guilty. The most recent publicly available reporting located for the case did not establish that Brown had been taken into custody on the 2026 warrant or that the homicide charge had proceeded to trial or resulted in a conviction.
