A night that began with the promise of a party ended in tragedy for 19-year-old Black / African American woman Erika Walker on March 7, 2015, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Walker was attending a house party near 35th and Auer when violence erupted, cutting her life short. The evening took a dark turn when a fight broke out at the gathering. In an attempt to de-escalate the situation and protect one of the individuals involved from being attacked, a man, accompanied by Walker, took him into a
bedroom.
While inside the bedroom, the chaos of the party continued on the other side of the door. The individual they were trying to protect reportedly wanted to leave the room and rejoin the fight. Suddenly, gunshots rang out, fired through the closed bedroom door. Walker was struck by the bullets and immediately cried out that she had been shot. She was quickly carried to a car and rushed to a nearby hospital, but her injuries were too severe. An autopsy later determined that Walker had died from six gunshot wounds.
The investigation into Walker's death led Milwaukee police to 18-year-old Jovan Mull. Witnesses at the party identified Mull as the shooter. He was arrested on March 23, 2015, while driving a stolen car and was initially charged in connection with an unrelated armed robbery and shooting that occurred after Walker's death. Subsequently, Mull was charged with first-degree reckless homicide for the death of Erika Walker. In April 2016, a jury found Jovan Mull guilty of first-degree intentional homicide. Two months later, in June 2016, he was sentenced to 25 years in prison, followed by 10 years of extended supervision for the murder of Erika Walker.
