Investigators say a relative’s intervention separated a 6-year-old boy from his father after the child’s mother was fatally shot.
ST. FRANCIS, Wis. — The 6-year-old boy at the center of a July 16 custody exchange left the parking lot with his father after his mother was shot, then was handed safely to a relative as police searched for the man now charged with killing her, according to a Milwaukee County criminal complaint.
The child’s path through the hours after Kiana Pliska’s shooting is a central part of the prosecution’s account against Randall Alexander Lenyard Sr., 33. Prosecutors say Lenyard killed Pliska, 32, outside the Lake Park Apartments in St. Francis and then drove away with their son. The complaint says he later told his sister that he was considering harming himself and the boy. She contacted 911, stayed in communication with him and eventually persuaded him to surrender the child to her. Lenyard has been charged with first-degree intentional homicide and stalking. The charges are allegations and have not been proved in court.
According to the complaint, the exchange had been arranged under a custody schedule in which the parents alternated time with their son. The meeting took place at an apartment complex where the family had previously lived. Police received multiple calls shortly before 6:30 p.m. reporting gunfire and a woman on the ground. Officers found Pliska with multiple gunshot wounds and began emergency treatment. She was transported to a hospital and died there. A witness told investigators that a man near Pliska’s vehicle fired at her, moved around the vehicle and fired again before leaving in a blue sedan with a child seated in the back.
Lenyard’s sister then became an important figure in the unfolding police response. The complaint says she received a message from her brother telling her that he had shot Pliska. During subsequent calls and messages, investigators say, Lenyard made statements about killing himself and the child. Rather than ending contact, his sister kept talking with him while she called 911 and tried to find a way to take the boy. The records portray that communication as a tense effort to remove the child without provoking further violence. Authorities have not released the child’s name, and local coverage has generally identified him only by age and relationship.
The complaint says the sister and Lenyard first discussed meeting at one public location before changing the plan. She eventually took custody of the boy at a Walgreens. Investigators say Lenyard warned against involving police in the handoff, and the sister’s account indicates she tried to reassure him while continuing to cooperate with emergency dispatchers. The child was transferred without being physically harmed. That handoff separated the boy from the immediate danger described in the complaint, but Lenyard remained at large for a short period after the exchange and police continued looking for him.
St. Francis police initially announced that a 33-year-old Milwaukee man had been taken into custody about two hours after the shooting and said there was no continuing threat to the public. Later reports, drawing from the criminal complaint, said officers ultimately arrested Lenyard following a police pursuit in the Milwaukee area. The complaint says detectives interviewed him after the arrest and that he acknowledged shooting Pliska after an argument. Investigators further allege that he admitted firing as she attempted to get away. Those statements have not been tested through testimony or cross-examination in a trial.
The scene evidence described by witnesses gives prosecutors a separate account of the shooting apart from Lenyard’s alleged statements. One witness said she initially mistook the gunfire for fireworks, then looked outside and saw a man by the vehicles. She told police the shooter made a downward motion with his arm, fired, moved around the vehicle and fired additional rounds. Police found Pliska near a black Nissan Rogue with its engine still running. Reports differ on the precise number of times she was struck, but all of the consulted sources agree she suffered multiple gunshot wounds and died after being taken to the hospital.
The child’s presence at the scene also connects the homicide allegation to the broader history prosecutors included in the stalking count. Pliska and Lenyard had a continuing parenting relationship even as she sought court protection from him. In a petition filed the same day she was killed, Pliska alleged that Lenyard had tracked her, appeared at her home without permission, called repeatedly and tried to locate her through friends and acquaintances. She also described earlier incidents that she said had become more threatening over time. Those allegations were part of civil court filings and are not themselves findings of criminal guilt.
One of the earlier allegations involved an AirTag that Pliska said she found on her vehicle in January. She later claimed Lenyard showed up at her home, workplace and another person’s workplace. In February, she alleged that he threatened her, put his hands around her neck and pinned her down. Local reporting says police arrested him after that incident and that he was later released. In April, Pliska obtained a temporary restraining order but did not appear at a later hearing, and that proceeding was dismissed. The available public reporting does not establish why she did not attend.
The records describe another confrontation just before the fatal shooting. In the July petition, Pliska said Lenyard had recently gone to her home and damaged a door while the child was there. One report citing the filing says the boy called 911 during that incident. Pliska returned to court on July 16 seeking another temporary restraining order. Multiple local reports that reviewed the docket say the petition was filed hours before the shooting and the temporary order was not granted until the following morning, after her death. That sequence places the custody exchange inside an already active dispute about safety and contact.
At Lenyard’s initial appearance, prosecutors emphasized what they described as the escalation leading up to Pliska’s death. Assistant District Attorney Patrick Anderson cited the stalking allegations and the use of a gun in arguing for a $1 million cash bond. Court Commissioner Barry Phillips instead set bond at $250,000 and ordered Lenyard to have no contact with his son or Pliska’s family. Phillips sharply characterized the alleged shooting while discussing bond, but an initial appearance is not a trial and does not resolve the question of guilt. The defense retains the right to challenge the complaint, the statements attributed to Lenyard and other evidence.
The homicide charge carries the most serious potential consequence. Under Wisconsin law, first-degree intentional homicide can result in life imprisonment if a defendant is convicted. The separate stalking charge is based on the alleged pattern of unwanted tracking, contact and intimidation prosecutors say came before the killing. Charging the two offenses together allows the state to present the fatal shooting and the earlier alleged conduct as related parts of the same case, though each count still has its own legal elements that prosecutors must prove beyond a reasonable doubt at trial.
For the child, however, the criminal case is also the aftermath of losing one parent while the other faces a potential life sentence. Court records say he was present during the custody exchange and left with Lenyard immediately afterward. Authorities have not disclosed details about his current care, and the court ordered Lenyard not to contact him. The restraint shown in public reporting about the boy reflects his status as a minor and a witness to a violent family event, not a lack of relevance to the case. His safe transfer to Lenyard’s sister is one of the few immediate outcomes in the complaint that is not in dispute.
Lenyard remains charged, and the allegations in the complaint must still be proved in court. The boy survived the night physically unharmed, while the legal case now focuses on what prosecutors say happened to Pliska during the handoff and on the months of alleged stalking that came before it.
Author note: Last updated August 26, 2026.