In the pre-dawn hours of Saturday, February 26, 2022, Demond Hicks, a 36-year-old Black man from Racine, Wisconsin, was found lying in the street near Victory and Cleveland Street with multiple gunshot wounds. He was taken to a local hospital and pronounced dead. The Racine Police Department is investigating the incident as a homicide.

Hicks was co-owner of Gifted Hands Group Home in Racine and was described by family as a devoted father to five children—four daughters and a son—and a protector to his extended family of fourteen siblings. His father, De Andrae Woods, said Hicks was turning his life around and making a positive impact on children; his mother, Antoinette Hicks, expressed the family’s pain and their need for answers.

Authorities have asked anyone with information to contact the Racine Police Department or Crime Stoppers. Did anyone in the community see or hear anything around Victory and Cleveland Street that night?