On the night of Sunday, April 17, 2016, 23-year-old Lavenski Dennis of Milwaukee died after a violent confrontation on the city’s west side, around 10:20 p.m. in the 2900 block of West Mount Vernon Avenue near North 29th Street. Police initially reported he had been fatally shot after an altercation with another man and said the attacker was known to Dennis. Dennis’s family disputed that account: his mother, Carolyn Dennis, said he had been stabbed, describing the assailant as having his son around the neck while stabbing him. His sister Erica Dennis said she witnessed his last breath. Dennis was the father of a young son, Jayquon, whom his mother described as his only child and best friend.

The next afternoon investigators returned to the scene after a weapon was reportedly found; a homicide detective placed a marker and recovered an object that appeared to be a knife, a detail consistent with the family’s description. Reporting did not establish whether the object was conclusively identified as the murder weapon or whether forensic testing tied it to the attack.

Does anyone have information about the April 17, 2016 confrontation or Lavenski’s last known movements that could help clarify what happened?