Mother remembers 16-year-old son gunned down on Sunday

MILWAUKEE (WITI) -- A 16-year-old boy was gunned down Sunday afternoon, August 25th in broad daylight while walking to get a bag of potato chips. FOX6 News spoke with the victim's mother, who never imagined her son would become a statistic. This, as police work to put an end to the violence.

"I'm still in shock. I never saw this coming. You are not supposed to bury your kids," Annette Payne said.

Payne will never be able to embrace her 16-year-old son Keenan Payne again.

"Keenan was bubbly. He had a laugh that would make you laugh. He was a big jolly giant," Payne said.

The teen was on his way to get a snack when he got involved in a fatal confrontation.

"He went in to get his chips, but prior to that there was some kind of car they were admiring. The gentleman in the car came out and told my son and the boys 'what are you looking at my car for? You must want to steal it.' My son told the gentleman 'I don`t need to steal your car. My mom has two.' Words were exchanged," Payne said.

The verbal altercation led to a fight, which escalated. Police say the suspect opened fire, killing Payne.

"God sits on the throne and it's his divine intervention that my son doesn`t have to suffer anymore, never have to worry about anyone hurting him anymore. With that I find comfort," Payne said.

"It's alarming to the Police Department to be quite frank," MPD Assistant Chief James Harpole said.

Harpole says a big part of MPD's strategy is literally getting out on the streets and into the community.

"We deploy teams, officers to hotspots throughout the city, to smaller areas throughout the city. Currently right now our Police Department has tapped into the 58 recruits who recently graduated from the Milwaukee Police Academy and they are performing their duties all summer long and beyond the summer will be out there on foot," Harpole said.

Police call the initiative the Building Neighborhood Trust program. On a daily basis, Assistant Chief Kurt Leibold says officers are using data and intelligence sources to get to the bottom of problems.

"The problem isn`t the entire neighborhood. It's single individuals or people we need to target so we get specific information for them to go out and get the people we need to talk to. We gain trust and relationships and the citizens give us really good tips," Leibold said.

Annette Payne says her son had plans to enroll in Job Corps with aspirations of becoming a chef. Police say they are following up on leads to identify a suspect.

So far, police say there have been 64 reported homicides this year versus 54 last year.