Daniel W. LaFond, a 28-year-old White/Caucasian man, was killed in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, during the early morning hours of July 20, 1977. Before his death, LaFond had been spending time inside a tavern in the 3800 block of North Port Washington Road. According to the Milwaukee Police Department’s cold-case account, he spent approximately two and a half hours playing pool with another man. At some point afterward, LaFond left the tavern, and the evening took a deadly turn.
At approximately 2:15 a.m., people in the neighborhood heard gunshots coming from behind an apartment building located near the tavern. A short time later, LaFond was discovered lying lifeless in a nearby vacant lot. He had been shot numerous times. The available police account does not indicate that the shooting occurred during a robbery or describe an argument, confrontation, or other event that might explain why LaFond was targeted. The circumstances between the time he left the tavern and the moment the shots were heard therefore remain an important unanswered part of the case.
Investigators considered LaFond’s activities inside the tavern significant enough to preserve the detail that he had spent roughly two and a half hours playing pool with another man shortly before his death. However, the publicly available Milwaukee Police Department cold-case information does not identify that individual by name, does not explicitly state that he was the gunman, and does not provide evidence establishing his involvement in the killing. No additional publicly identified suspect is named in the available police summary.
Online records reviewed for the case do not identify an arrest, criminal charge, prosecution, trial, or conviction for LaFond’s killing. Milwaukee police continue to maintain his death among the department’s cold cases and request information from anyone who may know what happened. More than four decades after the gunshots were heard behind the apartment building near North Port Washington Road, the publicly documented case remains unresolved, with the identity of the person who repeatedly shot LaFond still undisclosed.
