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The dreary Thursday morning fit the heavy emotional feeling near the corner of Hawley and Vliet after police found the body of a 5-year-old in a dumpster behind an old bar.
“It just doesn’t even make sense,” Dennis Walton, a community organizer said. “When you don’t think it could get any worse, it does. This is one of the worst circumstances you could think of for a 5-year-old.”
“I’m just shocked,” Alderman Michael Murphy said. “It’s a beautiful 5-year-old little boy who had his whole future ahead of him and then tragically taken away.”
While questions remain about why this happened to Prince McCree, TMJ4 New has learned one tool used to help prevent such a tragic outcome was not used, an Amber Alert.
The Milwaukee Police Department says it consulted the Wisconsin Department of Justice about issuing an Amber Alert, but the case did not meet the criteria to issue the statewide alert.
“When we do issue these, we’re pretty careful about that as well,” Melissa Marchant, Amber Alert Program Coordinator for the DOJ said.
Consider the DOJ’s statistics on missing children cases. They estimate there are 13 missing children cases filed daily in the state. Since the Amber Alert system was established in Wisconsin 2003, that would mean roughly 94,900 missing children reports.
The Wisconsin DOJ has issued just 59 Amber Alerts in that time.
Marchant says three criteria need to be met for the state to consider issuing an Amber Alert.
- The child must be 17 years of age or younger
- The child must be in danger of serious bodily harm or death
- Initiating agency must have enough descriptive information about the child, the suspect and/or the suspect vehicle to believe an immediate broadcast alert will help locate the child.
The state takes these criteria very seriously, as it notifies every single person in the state through Television, Radio, and cell phone notifications. But just because an Amber Alert is not issued, does not mean it won’t at some point in the future.
“Many times, at the beginning, you just don’t have all of the information,” Marchant said. “So you continue to evaluate it as it progresses to see if it would meet the criteria. When they’re requested, if it does not meet an Amber Alert at that time, we continue to work with the local law enforcement agency to offer resources.”
In McCree’s case, Marchant says the state issued a critical emergency for Prince. It’s a higher level of urgency, but not the same as when everyone is notified through an Amber Alert.
Senator LaTonya Johnson tells TMJ4 News, McCree did not meet the criteria because there was no description of a suspect or vehicle. According to Milwaukee Police, when McCree was reported missing, the Wisconsin Crime Alert Network said, “Child was last seen at home by his mother at 9:00am and discovered missing at 1:00pm. The child is missing under unknown circumstances.”
Roughly 15 hours after police were notified, McCree’s body was discovered. He becomes the 20th child murdered in the City of Milwaukee; the fourth straight year the city has eclipsed at least 20 child homicides.
Additionally, as a young African-American boy, McCree adds to another startling statistic. Out of the 67 youth homicides since 2021, 61 are African American (91%).
While all the homicides are not the result of a missing persons case, Johnson feels this specific case highlights an issue with how Amber Alerts are issued.
“I do believe the Amber Alert should be tweaked,” Johnson said. “When you have a 5-year-old missing, it doesn’t matter how they went missing. In a lot of cases, you won’t know unless they’re physically abducted in front of your face. I think when children go missing as young as the baby we had go missing yesterday, there should be an exception. Time is of the essence.”
While the issuance of an Amber Alert is of concern to Walton, his bigger focus is why this incident go to a point where an Amber Alert is even considered. He has great concerns about what societal issues lead to a 5-year-old being in such a dire situation.
“A lot of times, we’re looking at the end result,” Walton said. “We’re not looking at the root of the problem. When we look at the issues that our society is challenged with today and what’s going on in our communities, we have to do a better job at getting ahead of what these issues are.”
TMJ4 News reached out to the DOJ about its decision not to issue an Amber Alert in this case and will post its response as soon as it is received.
Correction: A previous version of this report spelled McCree incorrectly.
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