Verquell S. Bailey, an 18-year-old Black male from Milwaukee, was killed in a shooting during the early morning hours of August 27, 2016. Milwaukee police records released through local news outlets identified Bailey by his full name and date of birth, November 1, 1997, establishing that he had not yet reached his nineteenth birthday when he died.
At approximately 12:45 a.m., Milwaukee police were called to the area near North 19th Street and West Meinecke Avenue on the city's north
side. Officers responding to the 1900 block of West Meinecke Avenue found Bailey lying on the sidewalk suffering from a gunshot wound. The circumstances that brought him to that location, what happened immediately before the gunfire, and whether he had been specifically targeted were not disclosed in the initial public reports. Bailey was pronounced dead at the scene.
In the days following the killing, police publicly identified Bailey and said detectives were continuing to investigate the homicide and search for suspects. Authorities did not announce that anyone had been taken into custody, and contemporary reporting specifically stated that there were no suspects in custody. No publicly released description of the shooter, possible getaway vehicle, suspected motive, or sequence of events leading to the shooting was provided in the reports located.
Bailey's death was subsequently included among Milwaukee's homicide victims for 2016 by the Milwaukee Homicide Review Commission. The commission's annual report memorialized the people lost to violence during a year in which Milwaukee recorded 139 homicide deaths. Although that report lists Bailey among the victims, it does not provide an account identifying who killed him or indicating that the case resulted in a prosecution.
Available online reporting does not identify a person who was later arrested or formally named as a suspect in Bailey's killing, nor was information located showing that anyone was charged, tried, convicted, or sentenced for his death. The public record located therefore leaves the homicide without a publicly documented resolution: Bailey was found mortally wounded on a Milwaukee sidewalk in the early hours of August 27, detectives began searching for whoever was responsible, and no subsequent arrest or prosecution could be verified from the available online sources.
