Joseph O’Neal, 31, a Black male, was found shot to death inside his apartment near North 49th Street and West Luscher Avenue in Milwaukee in the early morning hours of May 14, 2020. Police were called around 2:45 a.m. and recovered a single 9mm cartridge casing next to his body, but his phone was missing. Security video from the building showed a person getting out of the passenger side of a car at about 2:13 a.m., placing a phone call, and then, minutes later, sprinting back to the waiting
vehicle. Investigators matched that timeline to O’Neal’s phone records, which showed the last incoming contact at approximately the same time the suspect was seen calling outside.
Weeks later, officers recovered a handgun during an unrelated incident and test-fired it; ballistics indicated it was consistent with the weapon that fired the casing at the homicide scene. A man linked to that gun told detectives he got the firearm from a relative and that it had been used in O’Neal’s killing by “Boo Man,” whom he identified as Demetrius Stokes. When questioned, Stokes admitted he went to O’Neal’s residence intending to rob him of cash and marijuana, said he took O’Neal’s phone, and claimed the gun discharged during a struggle after O’Neal reached for it. Prosecutors charged Stokes, then 24, with a single count of felony murder in connection with O’Neal’s death.
Public memorial listings later recorded O’Neal’s death in Milwaukee on May 14, 2020, noting his age and honoring him among those lost to gun violence. Funeral notices placed him in the care of a local mortuary and set services for late May 2020. These records do not add details about the criminal case’s ultimate disposition beyond the initial felony murder charge, but they confirm the date, location, and circumstances surrounding his death as reported at the time.
