Milwaukee prosecutors charge Robbiel Stokes, 15, in classmate's killing

Milwaukee County prosecutors charged 15-year-old Robbiel L. Stokes as an adult on Friday with first-degree intentional homicide in the killing of his 16-year-old classmate Camron Bowen outside a county bus, and Stokes has not been arrested.

The single count is first-degree intentional homicide, use of a dangerous weapon, and an arrest warrant has been issued to track him down, CBS 58 reported. Stokes, who is from Milwaukee, was charged as an adult and was not in custody when the charge was announced. No booking photograph of him has been released because he is still wanted, FOX6 reported.

Bowen was shot on Saturday, Sept. 19, after he and Stokes got off a Milwaukee County Transit System bus near Layton Boulevard and Greenfield Avenue on the city's south side. He collapsed in the street and died there of multiple gunshot wounds, according to the criminal complaint as reported by WISN, which said Stokes is accused of shooting him six times. The medical examiner counted six wounds, TMJ4 reported.

What the complaint describes

Bowen boarded the bus first, and Stokes got on about 10 minutes later and sat next to him, FOX6 reported. The two appeared to have a heated conversation, and bus security cameras recorded the argument, Stokes following Bowen out of the rear door, and then the shooting.

Both teenagers stepped off through the rear doors when the bus stopped. Stokes moved behind Bowen as they got off, then pulled a handgun from his hoodie pocket and began shooting at Bowen as he ran away, TMJ4 reported. Witnesses said Bowen ran in front of the bus while the shooter chased him and kept firing, WISN reported. He fell in the road.

I'm happy that I know who it is. I'm happy that I know it was exactly what I suspected. It is just hard because he is not caught yet. I just don't want this happening to anybody else

Cassidy, Bowen's mother, spoke to TMJ4 after the charge was filed. She said she felt some sympathy for Stokes's mother, and that parents needed to make sure their children were not holding guns and to teach them about gun safety. She described her son as smart and said he had a future for himself. Her heart and soul, she said, were gone.

Law&Crime reported that the complaint describes the shooting beginning six seconds after the two boys stepped off the bus. Stokes called his mother asking to be picked up just minutes after police were dispatched to the scene, TMJ4 reported.

Stokes has not been arrested, and the account set out in the complaint is the state's allegation, which has not been tested in court.

A fight three days earlier

The complaint traces the shooting to a fight at Bay View High School on Sept. 16, three days before, TMJ4 reported. Stokes and Bowen were students at the school. Investigators contacted school staff, who told them the two had fought days earlier, CBS 58 reported.

A friend of Bowen's was on a video call with him just before the gunfire and heard arguing in the background, WISN reported from the complaint. The friend told investigators Bowen had recently been suspended after confronting another student over a stolen item. School officials identified Stokes as the student involved in that earlier altercation.

Stokes asked his mother for a ride near 35th Street after the shooting, FOX6 reported. She told authorities he appeared nervous, was wearing different clothes and was soaking wet from the rain when she picked him up.

Investigators later showed her still images from the bus cameras, and she identified her son as the person who shot Bowen, TMJ4 reported. Police searched her car and found a .40-caliber cartridge on the rear floorboard that matched the brand and caliber of casings recovered at the scene, FOX6 reported.

What the family has said

Family and loved ones gathered on Saturday for a walk in Bowen's honor, calling for justice and an end to gun violence, and his aunt, Nicole Cassidy, spoke about the milestones her nephew will miss, TMJ4 reported.

We don't get to see him walk across a stage and graduate. It is not right to us

Bowen grew up on Milwaukee's south side and attended Bay View High School. His mother said he liked basketball and video games, was into anime and was good with technology, and that he wanted to study it in college. She described him as good-hearted and funny. A GoFundMe fundraiser was created to help the family cover funeral expenses, FOX6 reported.

Bowen had turned 16 on Sept. 16, three days before he was killed.

In the days after the shooting, before anyone was charged, Cassidy told FOX6 that her son had been shot seven times in what she called an ambush, and that he had been bullied and was sticking up for himself and some friends. Police said then that they had not determined what led to the shooting. The medical examiner's count in the complaint is six.

The school board's moment of silence

The Milwaukee Public Schools Board of Directors held a moment of silence at its Sept. 24 meeting for five district high school students who have died, among them Camron Bowen, the Bay View High School student shot on West Layton Boulevard and West Greenfield on Sept. 19, Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service reported. The board honored several current and retired staff members at the same time.

Another of the five was Antwon Mooney, an 18-year-old Pulaski High School student, whose death was noted in the same account.

Stokes was still being sought when the charge was announced, and police have asked anyone with information to call the Milwaukee Police Department at 414-935-7360. Milwaukee Crime Stoppers takes anonymous tips at 414-224-TIPS or through the P3 app, FOX6 reported.

Before the charge, Cassidy called on the person responsible to come forward and take accountability, and told TMJ4 that learning her son had been shot was the worst call of her life. Bowen's aunt Kayla Evans said gun violence in Milwaukee had worsened since she was a child who played outside until the street lights came on. A memorial grew near Layton and Greenfield, FOX6 reported.

Prosecutors filed the charge on Friday, Sept. 25, and a warrant was issued for Stokes's arrest. In the weekend after the shooting, before the charge, TMJ4 reported that no arrests had been made and that the investigation was continuing.

What the record does not say

FOX6 reported on Sept. 20 that the shooting was called in around 4:55 p.m. and that the victim was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The complaint, filed days later, says he collapsed in the street and died at the scene.

Police have not said where they believe Stokes is, and no statement from him has been made public. The prosecution's account rests on the bus video, witness accounts, his mother's identification of him in still images and the cartridge recovered from her car. He is charged with a single count and is being sought on a warrant.