In the spring of 2020, a horrific act of violence shattered a Milwaukee family. A 19-year-old Black / African American male named Marcus G. Stokes was tragically killed on April 27, 2020, a victim of a mass shooting inside a residence on the city's north side. The events of that morning were set in motion by the person who was supposed to be his protector, his own father. Marcus was not the only one to lose his life; four other family members were also slain in the rampage. They were Teresa R.
Thomas, 41, Lekeitha M. Stokes, 17, Tera R. Agee, 16, and Demetrius R. Thomas, 14.
The grim discovery was made after the suspect himself, Christopher P. Stokes, then 43, made two chilling calls to 911. In these calls, he confessed to the dispatcher, stating, "I just massacred my whole family." He told them the weapon was still upstairs with the bodies and that he would be waiting on the steps outside the home. When police arrived at the house near 12th and Locust, they found Christopher Stokes sitting on the steps as he had said. When an officer asked him if he had heard any shots, he replied, "Yeah, I didn't hear them. I did them." A 3-year-old toddler, the suspect's grandson, was found unharmed inside the house.
Inside the home, investigators located the bodies of the five victims. Marcus Stokes was found in the living room, having sustained multiple shotgun wounds. The other four victims were discovered in a bedroom. Authorities recovered a 12-gauge Mossberg shotgun and numerous spent shells from the scene. The motive for the killings was not definitively established, though Christopher Stokes himself told the court he didn't know what came over him, only that he "woke up and just had blood on my mind." Relatives described his relationship with Teresa Thomas as tumultuous, and he had a prior criminal record that included domestic violence charges, legally prohibiting him from owning a firearm.
Christopher Stokes was arrested and charged with five counts of first-degree intentional homicide. After a period where he was found incompetent to stand trial, he was later deemed able to face the charges. He ultimately pleaded guilty to five counts of first-degree reckless homicide and being a felon in possession of a firearm. Expressing some remorse at his sentencing, he stated, "I deserve to be locked up. I deserve everything I get. No one in the world should have done what I did." In July 2021, he was sentenced to 205 years in prison for the murders of his son, Marcus, and the four other members of their family.
