Lee F. Scott III, a 30-year-old man from Madison, was shot during the early morning of July 22, 2025, outside an apartment complex on the city’s north side. Shortly after 4:00 a.m., officers responded to multiple reports of shots fired in the 2100 block of Schlimgen Avenue, near the Avenue Square Apartments. An Uber driver found Scott lying on the ground and called 911; he was transported to a hospital with multiple, life-threatening gunshot wounds.

Scott died from those injuries on July 24, 2025, and the case was upgraded from attempted homicide to homicide. Investigators said the shooting appeared to be a deliberate, targeted attack; police collected physical evidence, reviewed security and other video, and identified people they wanted to question. That same day officers executed a warrant at an apartment on West Washington Avenue, detaining several people and recovering a firearm investigators sought to link to the shooting.

Police focused their investigation on Joshua T. Dean, who was located and detained on July 22 and held for a parole violation while detectives continued building the case. On July 29, police announced Dean had been arrested in connection with Scott’s death and referred charges of first-degree intentional homicide and possession of a firearm by a felon; those were allegations pending in court. Dean remained in custody in Dane County into 2026. Was anyone in Madison that July night aware of activity around Schlimgen Avenue or the Avenue Square Apartments that could help investigators?