By Erika Hernandez
28 Oct 2024, 2:53 PM EDT
Authorities reported that a Milwaukee man was arrested after being charged with first-degree reckless homicide for shoot and kill a pizzeria worker over an order problem.
The shooting occurred shortly before noon on Saturday, October 19, inside Action Food & Liquor at Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive and Keefe Avenue in Milwaukee.
Charles Leggett, 38, ordered a pizza at the restaurant and noticed the man preparing the food was not wearing gloves, according to the criminal complaint cited by WISN 12 News.
Surveillance video from inside the store shows Leggett returning to the register where he originally ordered the pizza and beginning to argue with the victim, identified as 26-year-old Jamil Owais.
After a brief discussion, Leggett admitted to investigators that he reached over the counter and shot Owais once in the chest. before running out of the store.
Owais died at the scene, behind the counter of his family’s corner store.
Owais’ older brother, Mohammad Owais, told WISN 12 News that the victim immigrated to the United States in 2013 from his homeland in the Palestinian territory of the West Bank. She was at the store on Saturday to fill in for Mohammad, the business owner, while he ran errands.
WISN 12 News spoke with the employee who was preparing Leggett’s pizza that day. He was afraid of being identified, but when asked if he was wearing gloves while preparing the food, he said, “I was wearing gloves, I’m pretty sure.”
Mohammad says his little brother leaves behind his wife and six-month-old daughter. He comes from a family of 12 members.
Leggett is a convicted felon who should not have had a gun. A judicial commissioner set his cash bail at $200,000 on Thursday. If convicted, he could face up to 75 years in prison.
Keep reading:
–One police officer killed and two injured in shooting inside a house in Florida
–9-year-old boy shot to death in Milwaukee; the fourth young victim in recent weeks
–Legal dispute ended in tragedy: what caused the shooting at a Las Vegas law office?