Milwaukee prosecutors have charged the driver at the centre of a November 1 police pursuit that killed an 18-year-old high school senior who was driving home through a green light. Antwan Kevon White, 36, of Milwaukee, is charged with second-degree reckless homicide, fleeing an officer resulting in death, fleeing an officer resulting in great bodily harm, and possession with intent to deliver fentanyl, according to a criminal complaint reported by TMJ4 News on Monday, November 9. The charges are allegations; White is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court.

Source: TMJ4 News (WTMJ, Milwaukee)

The complaint, as reported by TMJ4 and by Focal News on November 10, lays out a pursuit that began at about 10:09 p.m. on Sunday, November 1, on Milwaukee's south side. A Milwaukee police officer saw a white Nissan Altima disregard a stop sign near South 23rd Street and West Orchard Street. The officer turned on the squad car's lights and siren and caught up with the Nissan near South 19th Street and West Mitchell Street, where, prosecutors say, White accelerated and refused to stop.

The pursuit ended at South Layton Boulevard and West Greenfield Avenue. Prosecutors say White drove through a red light and crashed into an Acura driven by David Hunt, who had the green light. Hunt, 18, died at the scene. A passenger in White's vehicle suffered serious injuries and underwent emergency surgery, according to the complaint.

Investigators say officers recovered fentanyl, cocaine and $834 in cash after the crash. According to the complaint, White admitted he was driving the Nissan; investigators say he initially told police he did not notice officers trying to stop him, but later said he fled because there were drugs inside the vehicle. Those statements are the prosecution's account in the complaint and have not been tested in court.

Who David Hunt was

Hunt was a senior at the Milwaukee School of Languages and a youth leader with YES — Youth Empowered in the Struggle — the youth arm of Voces de la Frontera, the Milwaukee-based immigrant-rights organisation. Family and friends who spoke to TMJ4 in the days after the crash remembered a caring, passionate young man who wanted to make a difference in his community; TMJ4's remembrance carried their words in its headline: “The world is going to miss out.” For Milwaukee's immigrant and Latino communities — and for the Punjabi and other diaspora families whose teenagers drive these same south-side streets — the case has landed as a story about an ordinary drive home ending at the wrong intersection at the wrong second.

The location itself has a history. Sunday's crash was the third fatal crash near Layton Boulevard and Greenfield Avenue in the past five years, according to crash data reviewed by TMJ4; in March 2023, a 77-year-old Milwaukee man died after he was hit by a driver near the same intersection.

The charging decision closes the first phase of a case that began with an arrest at the scene. On November 2, Milwaukee police said the 36-year-old driver of the pursued vehicle had been taken into custody and taken to a hospital for treatment, that illegal narcotics had been found, and that charges — including knowingly operating without a valid licence causing death — would be referred to the Milwaukee County District Attorney's Office for review. The complaint filed this week carries the four felony counts listed above, led by second-degree reckless homicide.

Pursuit cases like this one sit at the centre of a long-running Milwaukee debate about when officers should chase and when they should let a car go — a debate this crash has now returned to the city's front pages with a name, a school and a family attached to it. For now, the formal record is the complaint: a stop sign run at 10:09 p.m., 2.1 miles, speeds prosecutors put at 90 mph, more than eight stop signs and red lights allegedly disregarded, and a red light at Layton and Greenfield that an 18-year-old with the green light never made it through.