Milwaukee transgender woman killed, Menasha suspect takedown video

MENASHA, Wis. - FOX6 News obtained video showing the Menasha arrest of Cordell Howze, charged with first-degree reckless homicide in the death of Cashay Henderson, 31, a Milwaukee transgender woman.

Howze is charged with first-degree reckless homicide and possession of a firearm by a felon.

The arrest happened Feb. 28, two days after Henderson's murder. Neenah police initiated a traffic stop of the vehicle, which then fled into Menasha. Police there successfully deployed stop sticks and took over the pursuit at a very slow rate of speed. Menasha police requested help from the Wisconsin State Patrol to perform a PIT maneuver, which happened on Appleton Road in Menasha. 

In the body camera video, a K-9 officer is deployed and immediately bites a Menasha police officer. The officer wearing the body camera then urges fellow officers to lower their voices because the dog will bite people who are loud.

As Howze walks away, officers follow into a park, where the K-9 is deployed again, the video shows. The dog bites Howze's arm, and police use a Taser to take him into custody.

"He’s got a handgun right there," an officer says in the body camera video. "Do not move. We’re going to get this dog off you, OK? I know it probably hurts. We’ll get it off.

"What happened to my arm?" asks Howze.

"A K-9," an officer says.

"What’s a K-9?" asks Howze.

"A dog," an officer says. 

"You serious?" asks Howze. 

"He’s all (expletive) up," an officer says. "I was wondering why the dog had no effect on him. You have a weapon there. Just make sure, there is gun parts here, a magazine. I (expletive) saw something in his hands."

Insanity plea

Howze pleaded not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity on June 15, a day after Henderson's family sought hate crime charges in the case. The court ordered that Howze be examined by doctors in regard to that insanity plea.

Firefighters found Henderson inside her apartment near 29th and Villard on Feb. 26 with a gunshot wound while they were responding to a fire.

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Prosecutors say Howze was captured by surveillance cameras in the area near Cashay Henderson's apartment near 29th and Villard at the time she was killed.

At the scene of the fire around 9:30 a.m. on Feb. 26, investigators found an unfired 9mm cartridge and items that indicated arson, such as a gas can. Henderson was unconscious and not breathing. Investigators noted there was a dead snake on scene. The fire was ruled arson.

An autopsy revealed Henderson was shot twice. Her death was ruled a homicide.

A neighbor told investigators Henderson's car wasn't in the parking lot late on the night before she was found dead, but it was there the next morning. Surveillance showed Henderson's vehicle pulled up at home around 3:45 a.m. There were at least two people in the vehicle, the criminal complaint says. 

After waking up the next morning, the neighbor said she smelled smoke, and her friend who stayed over that night asked if she had heard a gunshot in the middle of the night. As the building got smokier, the neighbor said she went over to Henderson's apartment, but there was no response at the door. They then went outside and called 911.

According to the complaint, surveillance from that night showed a man wearing a black vest with a hood over a gray sweatshirt and light sweatpants with a dark strip from the waist to the knee and possibly "Hey Dude" brand shoes. A fingerprint was recovered from Henderson's vehicle parked in the parking lot, and prosecutors say it was Howze's.

According to prosecutors, an acquaintance of Howze said Howze asked him to drive Howze from Neenah to Milwaukee. This person described what Howze was wearing, and that description matched that of the man later seen in the surveillance walking around near Henderson's apartment. The friend said he drove Howze from Neenah to Milwaukee, dropped him off and then went back home.

On Feb. 27, the day after Henderson was found dead, the friend told investigators Howze showed up at his home with a firearm that had a laser beam. He said Howze pointed the weapon at his wife's head, describing Howze as "acting strange" with a "blank stare" on his face, the complaint says. He said Howze showed him a video that appeared to show a dead woman with blood on her head. Also in the video was an aquarium with a snake in it -- consistent with the snake found dead in Henderson's apartment after the fire.

According to the criminal complaint, Howze told his friend, "I caught the body of a disgusting (expletive) tran." His friend knew this to mean Howze had killed a transgender person.

Afterward, Howze said he put his phone in airplane mode so the police couldn't track it. He told his friend he wanted to kill "several other people." His friend told him to leave because "he was pointing the gun at people," the complaint says.

Howze's mother told investigators that after the murder, Howze gave her a Gucci purse and a Rolex watch -- items that belonged to Henderson, according to prosecutors.

At Howze's grandmother's house, prosecutors say there were three pieces of mail belonging to Henderson, "consistent with the evidence that Howze went to her house, killed her, attempted to burn the house and stole her purse, watch and mail."

Cordell Howze released from jail days before Cashay Henderson's death

In 2020, Howze pleaded no contest to a felony charge of battery/threat to a judge/prosecutor/law enforcement and was sentenced in October 2021 to serve 18 months in prison and two years' extended supervision.

Online court records show Howze was released from prison at Redgranite Correctional Institution in December 2022.

He was arrested in January 2023 in connection with a Winnebago County pursuit.

He was released from the Winnebago County Jail on Feb. 24.

Two days later, Henderson was killed. She was the third Black trans woman killed in Milwaukee over the last nine months.