In the early evening of February 19, 2023, a tragedy unfolded in a Milwaukee neighborhood that would cut short the life of 13-year-old Jamarri Paige, a Black/African American male. Jamarri was inside his home near 47th and Fiebrantz, and his mother was preparing dinner. As she called him to get his plate, a barrage of gunfire erupted outside, with numerous bullets penetrating the walls of their house. One of these bullets struck Jamarri, who fell to the floor and died at the scene.
Neighbors reported hearing a multitude of gunshots, and the aftermath was filled with the sounds of his mother's desperate pleas for someone to help her son. Police later discovered nine bullet strikes to the house and recovered 22 casings from two different firearms, indicating the intensity of the assault.
The shooting was not a random act of violence but the tragic culmination of an ongoing dispute between Jamarri's family and another family. His mother informed investigators that she had been having problems with this other family, which stemmed from a past relationship. The conflict had escalated to the point where a woman from the other group had allegedly threatened to shoot up her house. On the same night that Jamarri was killed, another shooting occurred at a relative's home near 27th and Garfield, where police found 30 bullet casings, linking the two events to the same volatile dispute. In the immediate aftermath of the shooting at her home, Jamarri's mother ran outside and saw a car stopped at the intersection. The driver got out, looked at her, and made a comment to the effect of, "That's what that was!" before driving away. She was able to identify this individual as Lazarus McAdoo.
The investigation into Jamarri's death led to the arrest of 19-year-old Lazarus McAdoo. While McAdoo denied being the shooter, he admitted to being in an alley near the house for a family gathering at the time of the incident. He claimed to have heard others in his group talk about going to the house to shoot someone and admitted to following the car of the shooters and driving the shooter back to the gathering afterward. Cell phone data placed McAdoo at the scene of both shootings when they occurred. In October, Lazarus McAdoo pleaded guilty to first-degree reckless homicide in a deal with prosecutors that saw three other felony charges dropped. Subsequently, he was sentenced to 35 years in prison, followed by 15 years of extended supervision for his role in the senseless killing of Jamarri Paige.
