On the evening of February 10, 2024, Julian Flores, a 20-year-old Hispanic man, was shot and killed in his hometown of Kenosha, Wisconsin. Family members described him as a quiet and respectful person, and they were left in a state of shock by his sudden death. His mother, Yuridia Arenas, recalled speaking with him on the phone just 40 minutes before he was killed. When she arrived at the chaotic scene later that night, she said, "Something in my heart knew...
that's my son."
The shooting occurred just before 6:00 p.m. near the intersection of Sheridan Road and 42nd Street. Flores had just returned home from a shopping trip to Walmart with his grandfather. According to a criminal complaint, the grandfather witnessed the incident. He told investigators he saw Flores walk toward another man who was walking down the street. The man then pulled out a handgun and fired, striking Flores. Police responded to multiple reports of gunshots and found Flores with several gunshot wounds. He died from his injuries at the scene. An autopsy later determined he had been shot twice in the chest and once in the leg.
The investigation quickly focused on a small but crucial clue left at the scene: two pink Laffy Taffy candy wrappers found near Flores’s body. Detectives obtained surveillance footage from Westown Foods, a nearby grocery store, which showed a man purchasing the same candy just minutes before the shooting. Police identified the man in the video as Treshawn Tooks, a 22-year-old Kenosha resident.
Using this information, authorities tracked Tooks to Arkansas, where he was arrested by the White County Sheriff's Office on February 15, just five days after the murder. Tooks was extradited back to Kenosha to face a charge of first-degree intentional homicide for the death of Julian Flores. He made his initial court appearance and was held on a $1 million bond.
In March 2026, Treshawn Tooks stood trial in Kenosha County. Prosecutors presented the evidence linking him to the crime, including the surveillance video and the candy wrappers. The defense argued that the shooter was someone else, but the jury rejected this claim and returned a guilty verdict for first-degree intentional homicide.
On May 22, 2026, Tooks was sentenced for the murder. A judge ordered him to serve life in prison without the possibility of parole. The case was officially closed as of his sentencing in May 2026.
