RACINE, WI – Nine months after the death of 34-year-old Lavelle Monroe, charges have been filed against the person suspected of the fatal shooting.
Joshua Isiah Morris, 30, is charged with first-degree intentional homicide while using a dangerous weapon and being a felon in possession of a firearm. If convicted of the homicide charge, he faces life imprisonment.
According to the criminal complaint filed in Racine County Circuit Court, police responded to the east alley of the 2000 block of Mead Street on Sept. 2, 2018. People reported there had been fights at the party, and that someone had then been fatally shot.
A woman told police they had rented a hall in the neighborhood for her daughter’s 21st birthday party, and that at some point there had been a fight outside and someone had been shot. Witnesses told police that following the fight, the victim, Morris, and another person who had been involved began walking away from the party. About two minutes after they left, the shots were fired.
A witness said Morris first shot in the air, and that the victim yelled at him, questioning what he had been doing. A verbal argument followed, and that Morris then shot the other man.
Morris fled the area after the shooting, according to news reports, and was arrested last month in California.
His bond was set at $100,000, and his preliminary hearing is scheduled for May 22.
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