Man Shoots 2 Kids for Throwing Snowballs at His Car
CBS 58 | William Carson
CBS 58 | William Carson
MILWAUKEE—Officials have charged William Carson, 24, with shooting two children after he saw them throwing snowballs at cars.
He faces seven counts of first degree recklessly endangering safety, and use of a dangerous weapon.
The January 4 criminal complaint says that seven minors were playing in the snow on a street near 61st and Birch.
Investigators say that the children struck a light-colored, four-door car with a snowball, and as the group of kids walked home, the driver, Carson, turned around and started to follow them.
The driver then got out of his vehicle and fired a handgun at the children. The kids tried to run away from him.
Carson hit one child, 12, in the forearm. A bullet grazed a second child’s jacket. Carson’s bullet also struck 13-year-old Nick Johnson in the leg.
The driver then fled the scene in his car. He left behind 9 spent Winchester 9mm casings.
Oak Creek police arrested the driver on January 12. Carson tried to flee from the officers. The suspect was intoxicated.
Inside his vehicle, officers were able to retrieve a loaded weapon that had bullet casings that matched the ones found at the crime scene.
Investigators discovered that Carson bought the handgun only 11 days prior.
In an interview with CBS 58, Nick Johnson recalled the shooting story.
“Like it [the bullet] scraped the inside of my arm. It went in, then it went out.” He explained that he hid before he tried to find help.
“When I was hiding, I thought me and my cousin were gonna die. Because I thought he would get out of his car and was looking for us, but after that, I guess he just left.”
Johnson has a message for the person that shot him:
“Stop snapping on people. It was just a snowball. They could have just said, ‘I’m going to whoop ya’ll’s butts’ or come chase us or something and take us to our house, and tell our parents or something like that.”
Thankfully, all children involved will be okay.