Six People Found Shot Dead Inside Home During Welfare Check, No Suspects Yet

A homicide investigation is underway after six people were found shot dead inside a Milwaukee home on Sunday, Jan. 23.

The bodies of four men and a woman were found Sunday afternoon when police performed a welfare check at a home near North 21st and West Wright streets, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.

However, the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner’s Office confirmed early Monday morning that a sixth victim, another man, was also recovered at the residence, bringing the total to five men and one woman.

None of the victims have been formally identified but citing data from the medical examiner’s office the Journal Sentinel reported that three of the men found dead were ages 43, 42, and 31.

Milwaukee Assistant Police Chief Paul Formolo said the officers were responding to a call from concerned neighbors when they discovered the lifeless bodies inside the home.

"Citizens of our community had concerns with the occupants that resided there and it's a normal call for us to respond to. We do it all the time," Formolo said during Sunday's press conference. "And we came here and unfortunately today, we found five people that were deceased."

"The victims had injuries that are suspected to have been caused by gunfire."

A motive "and any information regarding any involved suspects is not known to us right now" he said, urging anyone with information to come forward.

A team from Milwaukee’s Office of Violence Prevention was at the scene showing their support, WTMJ reported.

"This is ridiculous, and I’m sorry I don’t know what better word to say," director Arnitta Holliman told the station. "The community is tired; we are tired of seeing people’s lives snuffed out too soon."

"This is absolutely preventable. Any of the gun violence that we’re seeing is preventable and we cannot continue this same trajectory that we've seen for the last two years."

"That means each and every one of us has to step up, speak up, stand up, do something to change the course of what's happening in our community," she said

Milwaukee's acting mayor, Cavalier Johnson (D), expressed his condolences to the families of the victims.

"First, I offer my condolences to the families and friends of the victims. Whatever the circumstances, we must share the grief of those who have lost ones," Johnson said in his statement.

"The murders discovered today on a residential block in the heart of our city are horrific."

"It is important not to feel numbed by the ongoing violence in our community. A horrible crime has again occurred, and it is not a movie or a fictional account. These victims died in our city, in one of our neighborhoods," he said.

Authorities are waiting for autopsy results to determine the cause of the deaths.