On a Friday morning in Milwaukee, the course of many lives was irrevocably altered by an act of violent retribution that claimed an unintended victim. Lennair Davis, a 56-year-old Black/African American woman, was fatally shot on February 27, 2015, while sitting in a car on the city's north side, in the 4500 block of N. 28th St.. The gunfire erupted around 8 a.m. as another vehicle pulled up alongside the car she was in and someone inside opened fire.
Davis was struck in the head and died from her injuries.
At the time of her death, Davis was with her son, Howard D. Davis. They were on their way to the courthouse where he was facing trial for his alleged role in a homicide from the previous year. Law enforcement officials quickly theorized that the shooting was not a random act of violence but a targeted attack. Police believed that Howard, not his mother, was the intended victim of the shooting.
The motive behind the deadly assault was believed to be revenge. Howard D. Davis, along with another man, was charged with the June 6, 2014, killing of Raymond E. Harris Jr. That homicide was itself considered an act of retaliation, as Harris was suspected of having shot Howard Davis in the summer of 2013. The fatal shooting of Lennair Davis was seen by her son's attorney as a direct consequence of the ongoing cycle of violence and retaliation connected to her son's case.
In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, a pretrial hearing for Howard Davis was postponed, as he was a witness to his mother's murder. Police were actively investigating the homicide of Lennair Davis, though at the time of initial reports, no arrests had been made in connection with her death. The case highlighted a tragic escalation of street justice, where a mother was killed in what was believed to be a violent message meant for her son.
