Transit surveillance is central to the case against 15-year-old Robbiel Stokes, who police said was taken into custody in early November.
MILWAUKEE, Wis. — Six seconds are at the center of the prosecution’s account of how an argument between two high school classmates turned fatal: the short span between Camron Bowen stepping off a county bus and prosecutors saying Robbiel Stokes drew a handgun and began shooting.
The timing comes from Milwaukee County Transit System surveillance footage described in a criminal complaint charging Stokes, 15, with first-degree intentional homicide in the Sept. 19 death of Bowen, 16. The video is one of several pieces of evidence prosecutors say document the movement of the two teenagers before and during the shooting near Layton Boulevard and Greenfield Avenue. Investigators also relied on the bus driver’s account, a school official’s description of an earlier fight, Stokes’ mother’s identification of her son in surveillance images and ammunition police found in her vehicle. Milwaukee police said Nov. 5 that Stokes, who had been wanted for weeks, was taken into custody. He has not been convicted of the charge.
The bus footage provides the most detailed chronology released publicly. Bowen was riding the bus before Stokes boarded, according to the complaint. The two boys, who attended Bay View High School, were near one another in the rear of the vehicle and began talking. Prosecutors described the exchange as heated. When the bus stopped near Layton Boulevard and Greenfield Avenue, both teenagers got off through the rear exit. Investigators said Stokes followed behind Bowen. In the complaint’s account of the recording, only about six seconds passed before Stokes allegedly pulled a handgun from his hoodie while Bowen was facing away and opened fire.
Bowen ran toward the front of the bus as shots were fired, according to investigators. The driver told police that he was still dealing with passengers getting off when he heard gunshots and looked outside. He said he saw Bowen running and another teenager behind him holding what appeared to be a silver pistol. The driver told investigators the armed teenager caught up with Bowen and fired multiple times. Surveillance footage described in the complaint showed Bowen collapsing in the roadway. TMJ4 reported that the medical examiner documented six gunshot wounds. Some initial news reports said Bowen was transported to a hospital before he died, while the criminal complaint and other reporting described him as dying at the scene; that discrepancy has not been publicly reconciled.
What happened on the bus did not begin the conflict between the boys, according to school information cited by prosecutors. The principal of Bay View High School told investigators that Bowen and Stokes had fought on Sept. 16, three days before the shooting. Authorities have not released a complete account of that earlier confrontation. Local reporting said the two apparently discussed the school fight on the bus before the shooting. That history gives investigators context for the encounter, but it does not change the prosecution’s burden to prove the homicide charge or establish Stokes’ intent through admissible evidence in court.
The complaint’s timeline continues after the shooting. At about 4:57 p.m., only minutes after police were sent to the area, Stokes called his mother and asked for a ride, according to prosecutors. She told investigators that she picked him up and found him soaked from the rain. Reports based on the complaint said she also thought he appeared nervous and had changed clothing. She then drove him to his grandmother’s home. Police later presented her with still images from transit-system surveillance, and she identified Stokes as the person investigators believed had fired the shots, the complaint says.
A search of her car produced another item prosecutors included in the charging case. Officers found a Federal .40-caliber Smith & Wesson cartridge on the rear floor, according to the complaint. Investigators said the ammunition was the same brand and caliber as casings collected where Bowen was shot. The published reports reviewed for this story do not say police recovered the firearm itself. Nor have authorities released a public statement from Stokes giving his version of the events. Those gaps are significant because the complaint represents the prosecution’s allegations at the charging stage, not a verdict on the evidence.
The shooting was reported shortly before 5 p.m. Sept. 19 and quickly drew a large police response to the south-side intersection. Before prosecutors identified a suspect, police publicly described the case as an active homicide investigation. That changed Sept. 25, when Stokes was charged and an arrest warrant was issued. The case then entered a second phase: detectives had a named defendant and a detailed allegation built around surveillance video, but Stokes had not been found. His status as a wanted teenager remained a central part of local coverage for weeks.
Meanwhile, the place documented by surveillance cameras became a memorial. The day after Bowen’s death, relatives and friends gathered near the intersection with balloons, candles, photographs and flowers. Family members said Bowen was a sophomore who had just turned 16. His mother, Jennifer Cassidy, said he was her best friend and described the loss as overwhelming. She later told TMJ4 that learning police had identified the person they believed was responsible brought some relief, but she said the absence of an arrest was difficult for the family while Stokes remained wanted.
Relatives also tried to make Bowen’s life more visible than the final seconds captured on video. His family described him as smart and caring. Local reports said he loved anime and was interested in studying technology after high school. His aunt spoke about the graduation the family would never see. Cassidy used her interviews not only to talk about her son’s death but also to urge parents and teenagers to take gun violence seriously. Those remarks reflected the family’s perspective and grief rather than findings about how Stokes allegedly obtained the weapon, a question authorities have not publicly answered.
The case took another turn Nov. 5 when Milwaukee police confirmed that Stokes had been taken into custody. The announcement was brief and did not say where officers found him, whether he surrendered or whether anyone else had helped investigators locate him. It also did not add new evidence about the shooting. The arrest nevertheless removed one of the major uncertainties that had followed the filing of the charge: whether police would find the teenage defendant who prosecutors said was visible throughout the transit-system footage.
With Stokes in custody, the six-second sequence cited in the complaint now moves from an investigative timeline into the court process, where prosecutors must prove the allegations beyond a reasonable doubt. The most recent verified reports reviewed for this story did not provide the result of a later hearing or a final disposition of the case. Bowen’s death is no longer an unsolved shooting, but the criminal charge against Stokes remains unresolved.
Author note: Last updated Nov. 9, 2026.