Joseph O’Neal, 31, was found shot to death inside his Milwaukee apartment near North 49th Street and West Luscher Avenue in the early morning of May 14, 2020. Police were called about 2:45 a.m.; investigators recovered a single 9mm cartridge casing next to his body and noted his phone was missing.

Building security video showed a person exit the passenger side of a car about 2:13 a.m., place a phone call, then run back to the vehicle. That activity matched an incoming call on O’Neal’s phone at roughly the same time. Weeks later, officers recovered a handgun in an unrelated matter; test-firing found ballistics consistent with the casing from the homicide scene. A man connected to that gun said he got it from a relative and identified Boo Man as the person who used it, naming Demetrius Stokes. Stokes told detectives he went to O’Neal’s residence intending to rob him, took his phone, and said the gun discharged during a struggle after O’Neal reached for it. Prosecutors charged Stokes, then 24, with one count of felony murder.

Funeral notices and public memorial listings confirm O’Neal’s death on May 14, 2020, and note him among those lost to gun violence. Does anyone have information about the events that night or about Joseph O’Neal’s last known contacts?