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Suspect in Wisconsin tavern shooting charged with homicide

A Wisconsin man accused of opening fire in a crowded bar faces multiple homicide counts

Via AP news wire
Wednesday 21 April 2021 14:32 EDT
Tavern Shooting Wisconsin
Tavern Shooting Wisconsin (Kenosha County Sheriff's Department)

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Prosecutors charged a Wisconsin man accused of opening fire in a crowded bar with multiple homicide counts Wednesday.

Rakayo Vinson, 24, of Kenosha was charged with three counts of first-degree intentional homicide and three counts of attempted first-degree intentional homicide in the shooting early Sunday at Somers House Tavern in Somers in Kenosha County, online court records indicate. He would face life in prison if convicted on any of the counts.

Authorities say Vinson got into a fight at the bar, left, came back with a handgun and opened fire. Killed were 24-year-old Cedric Guston; 26-year-old Atkeem Stevenson; and 22-year-old Kevin Donaldson, all of Kenosha. Sheriff David Beth said Vinson targeted them.

Three others were injured. Vinson was later arrested in Mount Pleasant after he stole a car from friends, who turned him in after he returned the vehicle, the sheriff said.

Online court records didn't list an attorney for Vinson.

Somers is about 30 miles (50 kilometers) south of Milwaukee, not far from the Illinois-Wisconsin border. It's about 6 miles (9.6 kilometers) southeast of Kenosha, which saw unrest last summer after a white police officer shot Jacob Blake, who is Black during a domestic dispute. Prosecutors have charged Kyle Rittenhouse a white 18-year-old from Antioch, Illinois with killing two people during the protests.

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