Two teenagers experienced a terrifying ordeal during the wee hours of the morning on a highway in Milwaukee when an incident of road rage escalated into a shooting. This alarming incident took place at approximately 4:50 a.m. on a Sunday, on the Interstate 43 close to the exit leading to Fond du Lac Avenue and McKinley Avenue.
The victims of this terrifying incident include a 17-year-old girl, who wishes to remain anonymous, was on her way downtown with her boyfriend. Their plan was to experience the early morning sunrise in the city. They were on the verge of exiting the highway to reach downtown when a suspenseful sequence of events started unfolding.
The couple found themselves side by side with another vehicle on the interstate at a junction. According to the young girl, they were traveling at an identical pace, side by side, maintaining lane discipline, when they realized the other car might need to shift lanes, assuming from its position in respect to the highway exit.
The boyfriend, seeing the other car’s possible need to merge, applied the brakes in order to give them space. Maneuvering deftly, he swerved his car towards the road shoulder, narrowly avoiding a collision with the side barricade. Honking his car’s horn as a signal to warn or perhaps communicate with the other driver, he slowed down and started to make his way around.
However, this seemingly normal exchange took a horrifying turn. The warning honk was misconstrued by the other driver as a provocation. Consequently, the driver of the other vehicle took a threatening stance by circling back towards their car before letting off gunshots targeting their vehicle.
The aftermath of the incident was clearly visible in the photographs captured at the scene, the most evident being bullet holes. One bullet had penetrated the area close to the fuel tank, and another went off through the passenger side window, right where the young girl sat. The thought of what could have happened left the teenage victim in utter disbelief.
She poses a rhetorical question, struggling to understand how she managed to escape unharmed, ‘How am I alive?’. Her father, Justin Greco, recounts the urgency with which he handled the situation upon hearing the news. Leaving behind even his running CPAP machine, he focused solely on reaching the location of the incident as swiftly as possible.
This event had a profound impact on the victim’s father, leading him to reflect on an intense lesson it entailed. The message he wants to deliver is to be cautious even when it comes to something as common as using a horn. He strongly advocates thinking carefully before responding or reacting in such situations.
However, the incident-induced lesson doesn’t stop with just advising restraint. He has drawn a greater conclusion about raising kids to act responsibly when they encounter situations that make them feel provoked or challenged. The earnest plea from the father is to instil principles of non-violence among children and teach them not to resort to firearms.
Both teenagers involved in the incident sustained only minor injuries from the shooting. The female victim, however, had a strong message to communicate to the person who had recklessly endangered their lives. She stated that she’d prefer a verbal disagreement, even abusive language, over getting scarred by a gunshot.
In her earnest message, she expressed her preference for words which might hurt momentarily, over the lifelong trauma that a bullet can inflict. Disbelief and shock remaining, she questions the ease with which her life was threatened by a stranger wielding a firearm.
The unidentified shooter didn’t stay at the scene post-shooting and has since disappeared. According to the victim, the suspect was driving a silver Dodge Journey, a model of an SUV.
In the aftermath of the shooting, attempts were made to contact the local sheriff’s office for additional information regarding the investigation. Nevertheless, these efforts didn’t yield any results, as the sheriff’s office was unsuccessful in providing further details.