Family of 14-year-old girl shot, killed in 2017 says information was withheld from them regarding arrest
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Police say the man arrested sexually assaulted the girl moments before she was killed.
The mother says her family was left open to possibly being targeted.
On Monday, it was announced that Lazar Tucker was arrested in the shooting death of Chrisima Murry. Documents show, however, an entirely different case that happened before that arrest. None of Chrisima's family members knew about it.
Shaquille Gilmore, 24, is now serving a 5-year sentence for second degree sexual assault of a child. That child is now dead. Chrisima Murry was shot and killed on February 23, 2017. Chrisima's mother says it wasn't until she was notified about this week's arrest that she learned about the past case.
"If he was arrested and sent to jail for what he did to here, why wasn't I aware to be protected for the rest of my children. Because if it was easy for him to make a call for somebody to come jump and kill her, it could have been easy for him to make that call and have that happen to one of us," said Lawanda McDowell, Chrisima's mother.
According to court documents, Gilmore was having sex with Chrisima Murry in a vehicle before they were targeted by three men with a gun and robbed. Gilmore would later feel it was a setup, blaming Chrisima.
One witness helping police said Tucker told him "that people could not be allowed to sob Shaquille and further admitted to shooting the victim because Shaquille wouldn't and the defendant decided to not allow this robber to slide."
It would take a year-and-a-half to arrest Tucker but Gilmore was charged in October of last year.
"How could you arrest someone and not give me the closure to watch him get put away. I should have been able to go to every court date Shaquille Gilmore had," McDowell.
CBS 58 News reached out to the Milwaukee County DA's Office and has not heard back yet. According to state law, families of homicide victims have rights including "to have reasonable attempts made to notify the victim of hearings or court proceedings" and "upon request, the opportunity at sentencing to make an oral statement or a written statement to be read in court, relevant to sentencing."
CBS 58 News also reached out to the Department of Justice to see if there is any record of an attempt to notify the family about the case.
Milwaukee Police are also looking into this case.