Milwaukee fatal shooting near MLK and Concordia; plea deal reached

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James Mann

MILWAUKEE - A Milwaukee man accused of fatally shooting a man near MLK and Concordia in February 2025 reached a plea deal in his case on Monday, Feb. 2. 

James Mann Jr. pleaded no contest to a charge of first-degree reckless homicide. A second charge of possession of a firearm by a felon was dismissed and read into the court record for the purposes of sentencing. 

Mann is set to be sentenced on March 13. 

Case details

What we know:

According to the criminal complaint, Milwaukee police were dispatched to the area near MLK Jr. Drive and Concordia Avenue for a shooting on Friday, Feb. 14. Officers located the victim, later identified as Carl Thurmond, laying on the sidewalk just to the south of a liquor store. Life-saving measures were attempted, but Thurmond died from his injuries.

A Milwaukee police detective recovered two fired .40 caliber GFL cartridge casings in the area of the victim's body, the complaint says.

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Investigators reviewed security video from the nearby liquor store that captured the homicide. The complaint says the "video shows the suspect has a black handgun in his right hand. The suspect walks up to the left side of the victim, extends his firearm towards the victim's head, and fires one time. The victim falls to the ground." The shooter then turned to walk away and fell to the ground. The complaint says after he got up, "the suspect fires an additional time at the victim, puts the firearm in his pocket, and then walks back the way he came."

Witness statements, more video

What they're saying:

Investigators spoke with two witnesses that corroborated what the video from the liquor store captured. They also secured additional security video from a nearby street that "shows what appears to be the same suspect wearing the same long black coat with tan fur around the hood." Residents where the video was captured stated the suspect fell backwards on the porch. They also stated they "saw a black cellphone on the porch which did not belong to any of the residents and was consistent with having been left by the suspect," the complaint says. That cellphone was recovered by police.

Cellphone records

Dig deeper:

The day after the shooting, investigators obtained a search warrant to search the suspect phone that was recovered. They couldn't get into the phone because it was locked by a passcode. However, there were several notifications on the lock screen. The complaint says a Facebook notification stated "BOO MAC you have a new friend suggestion." The second was from the Chime financial app which addressed the user as "James." When officers conducted a search on Facebook for BOO MAC, they identified a profile with the user name, James Mann. They also checked several photos on the profile posted by BOO MAC -- and "it appeared to be the same person as depicted in the security video of the suspect shooter," the complaint says. When a detective conducted a records check of police records for "James" with a specific birthdate, they found a match of the defendant.

On Feb. 16, Milwaukee police went to an address on N. 22nd Street to arrest the defendant. He was located and taken into custody. During booking, the complaint says an officer "asked the defendant what his phone number was, and the defendant stated, 'Nope, I lost my phone,'" the complaint says.

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Officers obtained a search warrant for the defendant's residence and found .40 GFL caliber ammunition, which is the same caliber and manufacturer as the fired casings found at the scene. They also recovered "a winter coat with fur around the hood," which appears to be the corn worn by the shooter in the surveillance video.