Five people were discovered dead inside a home in Wisconsin on Sunday afternoon in what police are investigating as a homicide.
Police were assisting with a welfare check at a residence in Milwaukee around 3:45 p.m. when they found the bodies of five people, including four men and one woman.
“All five deaths are being treated as homicides,” Milwaukee Police Assistant Chief Paul Formolo said at an evening news conference. “At this time, the motive and information regarding any involved suspects is not known to us right now.”
The identities of the victims are pending and autopsies will be conducted on Monday, according to Formolo.
Authorities do not believe there is a threat to the community, the assistant chief said.
When asked about the reason for the welfare check on the residence, Formolo said, “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.”
Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson extended condolences to the victims’ loved ones in a statement obtained by CNN.
“The murders discovered today on a residential block in the heart of our city are horrific,” Johnson said. “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.
Milwaukee, one of the country’s 40 most populous cities, has recorded more homicides in 2021 than any other year on record, according to a CNN analysis of police department data.
This was the second year in a row that the city set a homicide record, Milwaukee Police Department spokesperson Sgt. Efrain Cornejo confirmed to CNN.
There were at least 192 homicides in 2021, Cornejo said. In 2020, the city recorded 190 homicides.
“We remain steadfast in our efforts to reduce violence,” Johnson said. “We will achieve that through strengthened and improved law enforcement, through community intervention, and through a renewed commitment to prevention.”
Police are asking anyone with information about the case to contact Crime Stoppers or the Milwaukee Police Department.
