MILWAUKEE — Milwaukee police continue to investigate a quintuple homicide case in which people on both sides of a couple’s family were slain.
Police dispatchers received a call around 10:30 a.m. Monday in which a man said his family was dead, according to Milwaukee Police Chief Alfonso Morales. When officers arrived at the family’s home in the 2800 block of 12th Street, they found five people dead and a toddler unharmed.
“The caller, a 43-year-old Milwaukee man who is believed to be the suspect, was arrested and remains in police custody,” police officials said Tuesday. “Criminal charges will be presented to the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office in the upcoming days.”
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The dead have been identified by police as Teresa R. Thomas, 41, Marcus G. Stokes, 19, Lakeitha M. Stokes, 17, Tera R. Agee, 16, and Demetrius R. Thomas, 14.
Family members identified the toddler who survived the massacre as the 3-year-old grandson of the man suspected of being the shooter, according to Fox 6 in Milwaukee.
Agee and Demetrius Thomas were Teresa Thomas’ children, their uncle, Johnny Hall, told the news station. Hall said Marcus Stokes was the suspect’s son; Lakeitha Stokes’ relationship to the man was not stated.
“My sister and two of her kids were killed by her kids father today,” Hall wrote on a GoFundMe page set up to raise money to bury his sister and her children. “This is a tragedy for our entire family and words can’t explain what we are going through.”
Monday’s shooting is the second mass shooting in Milwaukee this year. Anthony Ferrill, a worker at the Molson Coors brewery, killed five co-workers at the facility Feb. 26 before turning his gun on himself.
>> Related story: Victims identified in mass shooting at Molson Coors Beverage Company
Though police officials have not publicly released the name of the suspect in the latest shooting, multiple law enforcement sources identified him to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel as Christopher Pilio Stokes. A man by that name is being held in the Milwaukee County Jail on a probation violation.
Jail records show Stokes has multiple other charges pending.
Family members of the victims also identified Stokes as the suspect in the fatal shooting. They said he and Teresa Thomas were in a tumultuous on again, off again relationship, according to Fox 6.
“Chris was part of our family,” Toni Cage, a relative of the victims, told the news station.
The family told Fox 6 Stokes had once broken Teresa Thomas’ arm. They believe she may have wanted to leave him.
Wisconsin court and prison records show Stokes has a history of domestic violence charges. He was convicted of battery in 2002 and sentenced to probation.
Stokes was ordered to attend domestic abuse counseling. He was also banned from owning firearms.
Five years later, in 2007, he pleaded guilty to several felonies, including battery, intimidation of a witness and bail jumping. Online court records identify the victim, from whom Stokes was ordered to stay away, as “Teresa T.”
Sentenced to serve 4 1/2 years in prison, he was again prohibited from owning a gun and ordered to complete a course for batterers, the records show.
In 2012, Stokes pleaded guilty to battery by domestic abuse. Another woman, not Thomas, named as the victim in the no-contact order handed down by the court during sentencing, in which Stokes was given 18 months in prison.
Stokes’ most recent conviction was in 2017, when he was sentenced to a month in jail for disorderly conduct. A man was listed as the victim in that case.
Cox Media Group
