SLAYING IS AREA'S SIXTH IN 10 DAYS

A 23-year-old man shot to death early Wednesday was the sixth victim in a
string of homicides that have rocked the same north side neighborhood in
the last 10 days.

The Milwaukee man died Wednesday at an area hospital, several hours after
he was shot about 1 a.m. in the 2400 block of W. Lloyd St., police said.
Police would not identify the victim.

The slaying came one night after a double shooting in the 2400 block of W.
Fond du Lac Ave.; five days after a man was shot to death in alley in the
1900 block of N. 25th St.; and a little more than a week after two cousins
were gunned down in the 2700 block of W. Garfield Ave.

No suspects are in custody and motives, if known, have not been made public
by police.

But Ald. Fred Gordon has no doubt what's behind the cluster of killings,
five of which have occurred in his aldermanic district.

"They are related to the drug trade," Gordon said in a telephone interview
from his home Wednesday evening.

"When you cross somebody, retaliation comes swift and suddenly," Gordon
said. "There are turf wars going on, and these young men are caught up in
it - and the retaliation is fatal."

Kheenan N. Newsom, 21, and his cousin Alfonzo L. Newsom, 17, were sitting
in a car near N. 28th and W. Garfield shortly before 9:30 p.m. June 11 when
gunshots from a rifle shattered the windows of the vehicle, according to a
medical examiner's report. The two escaped the vehicle and tried to flee
but were found with multiple gunshot wounds in the 2100 block of N. 27th St.

The following Friday, Michael G. Behardosingh, 44, was found slumped over
the steering wheel of a car in an alley in the 1900 block of N. 25th St.,
the victim of "firearm discharge-automatic weapon," according to the
medical examiner's report.

And Monday night, LeHavre "Butch" S. Buck, 24, and Maurice M. Gaillard, 27,
were standing on the street in the 2400 block of W. Fond du Lac Ave. about
10:20 p.m. when they were caught in a fusillade of gunfire.