Woman warned grandson about robbery before he died while robbing
RACINE, Wis. - The grandmother of a 20-year-old man who was shot and killed by a man he was trying to rob said she's not mad at the man who shot him.
"My grandson knows what he did was wrong," said Elizabeth Lockridge-Lewis, who raised Kendell L. Moss, 20. "I do not up and hold with no wrongdoing. I try to raise my kids up to do nobody no harm. I try to be mad at that man, but I can't. "
She said she told her grandchildren Saturday about the dangers of stealing.
"I talked to all of them that night about how people do to people that steal something," she said. "They kill you."
Less than 12 hours later, Moss, her oldest grandson, was dead and four of her teenage grandsons were in custody in Milwaukee.
The five took her van early Sunday morning, she said.
Moss had asked to take it earlier, but she refused. She thinks they may have peeled the steering column.
Milwaukee Police Department spokeswoman Anne E. Schwartz said the cousins drove the van to Milwaukee, where they attempted to steal a second car at a gas station.
Schwartz said the group approached a 64-year-old man from Yorktown, Ark., at about 6 a.m. Sunday.
One of them had a gun and they demanded the man turn over his van and money.
The man refused, Schwartz said, and Moss and his cousins began punching him. The boys then took the man's walking cane and beat him with that, Schwartz said.
At that point the man took out a gun and shot Moss, Schwartz said.
Lockridge-Lewis and Moss' father, Darron Moss, said the incident was out of character for the young man.
"I feel that the guy had options," Darron Moss said. "He could have shot in the air or screamed and scared them. You can replace things stolen, but not a life."
Police still had the four teenagers in custody, Moss' family said Monday. Police would not release their names because they are juveniles. The Arkansas man was arrested.
The Milwaukee County district attorney's office was reviewing the case.
Victim will not be prosecuted
MILWAUKEE - A 64-year-old man will not be charged in the fatal shooting of a man who allegedly tried to rob him at a service station, the prosecutor who reviewed the case says.
Milwaukee County Assistant District Attorney Karen Loebel said Wednesday that, based on the evidence, she would not be able to disprove a claim that the man from Arkansas was acting in self-defense.
Police spokeswoman Anne Schwartz has said that Kendall L. Moss, 20, was among a group of cousins who demanded that the man turn over his van and money.
The man refused, Schwartz said, and Moss and his cousins began punching him. The boys then took the man's walking cane and beat him with that, she said.
Schwartz has said that, at that point, the man took out a gun and shot Moss.
Meanwhile, a 16-year-old cousin of Moss was charged Wednesday with robbery in a Milwaukee County Children's Court petition in connection with the incident.
The petition said the 16-year-old had the man's car keys in his waistband when he was arrested. The boy told police that he tried to "pull Kendall off the old man as the struggle continued," it said.
Police said the man told them he kept the gun for protection and had feared for his life.
