Rosario Joseph Collura was a 39-year-old White/Caucasian male serving as an officer with the Milwaukee Police Department when he was fatally shot on March 19, 1985. Collura was a longtime member of the department, having served for roughly 18 and a half years, much of that time in Milwaukee’s 5th District. The district was especially familiar to him because he had grown up in the area and was still living there.
Only about two weeks before his death, Collura had transferred from the night shift to the day shift because he believed working during daylight hours would be safer. He was married and had three children.
At about 9:30 a.m. that morning, Collura and his partner, Officer Leonard R. Lesnieski, were patrolling near North 17th and West Center streets. Police records describe the officers noticing a group of men near a grocery store in an area associated with narcotics activity and recent robberies. Later accounts said the officers had come upon a marijuana transaction and stopped to question the men. As part of the encounter, the officers began frisking members of the group.
The situation turned deadly while the officers were conducting the searches. Terrance B. Davis was among the men being questioned and was reportedly buying marijuana with another man when the officers arrived. As Davis was being searched, he suddenly produced a handgun. He shot Lesnieski in the chest and then turned the weapon on Collura, shooting him in the chest as well. Both officers were struck at close range.
Lesnieski suffered a bullet wound to the heart and died from his injuries. Collura was taken to a hospital, where there initially appeared to be hope that he might survive. His condition deteriorated, however, as doctors were unable to control his internal bleeding. Approximately six hours after the shooting, Collura died from his wounds. The killing was particularly tragic given that he had already survived being shot in the line of duty years earlier. In 1973, Collura had been shot twice in the right leg during a struggle with a prisoner at the 5th District station and later received a merit citation for his actions during that incident.
Davis fled after shooting the two officers, but police later took him into custody. Investigators learned that he had been illegally carrying the handgun. Davis later said he opened fire because he did not want to return to jail. Authorities identified him as the gunman responsible for both officers' deaths, and the criminal case ultimately resulted in his conviction on two counts of first-degree murder. He received two life sentences in prison.
Davis remained incarcerated for the double murder. More than two decades later, in November 2008, he again became the subject of criminal proceedings after attacking two correctional officers with a claw hammer while working in the furniture shop at Fox Lake Correctional Institution. One of the officers required hospitalization. That attack eventually resulted in Davis receiving an additional 40-year prison sentence in November 2010. His incarceration therefore continued not only for the murders of Collura and Lesnieski but also for the later violence committed while serving his life sentences.
