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Manhunt on for gunman who shot 19-year-old Navy sailor

By Kent Wainscott

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    WEST ALLIS, Wisconsin (WISN) — The search is on for the gunman who killed a 19-year-old Navy sailor in the middle of a West Allis street.

It happened early Sunday near South 84th and East Becher streets.

Ash Rodriguez told WISN 12 her fiancé, Phoenix Castanon, went to a friend who needed help.

Rodriguez sat with the woman in the car while Castanon confronted the stranger.

“It looked like my fiancĂ© turned around to walk toward us when I spun around. I heard the car tires squeal from here to cut in front of him to stop him on his path. I heard the pop from the gun. I smelled gun powder. He sped off, took a left past Citgo and I watched my fiancĂ© fall,” Rodriguez said.

“Just heard the pop and the tire screeches,” West Allis resident Sheila Basile said. “And then all of a sudden, we heard the screaming.

A neighbor called 911.

Rodriguez could only sit and wait with Castanon, dying in her arms.

“I just held him. I had one arm over him and the other hand on the back of his head. I told him, I said, ‘It’s going to be OK, and I love you,” Rodriguez said.

She felt his pulse fade and then he was gone.

From her window Basile witnessed the aftermath of a deadly shooting in the street, moments later police arrived.

The unknown shooter took off.

WISN 12 spoke by phone with the victim’s stepmother.

“We heard that one of his friends was being harassed and Phoenix stepped in and, unfortunately, he was shot,” Tiata Nez-Dunklin said.

Nez-Dunklin said her stepson was stationed at Naval Station Great Lakes and was in West Allis for the weekend visiting friends.

“He was there training to be a gunner’s mate,” Nez-Dunklin said. “He loved it there.”

She described him as a good son, who loved rodeo.

“He was a cowboy. That actually was his nickname, was Cowboy. He was a bull rider,” Nez-Dunklin said.

Police have been checking neighborhood surveillance cameras trying to identify the shooter.

But for now, they’re not saying whether they have any strong leads in a killing that has shaken everyone in this West Allis neighborhood.

“I’ve never experienced like this so I bet the neighborhood and myself are pretty shaken up from it,” West Allis resident Max Kurkiewicz said.

“It was a scary situation. Yeah, it was scary,” West Allis resident Dean Berglund said.

Police have not said if they found any surveillance that might help find the shooter, they checked every doorbell camera on the block and took some surveillance video from an auto repair shop at the far end of the block.

The victim’s family said police told them they have identified a suspect vehicle, but police are not confirming that at this point.

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