Prosecutors say Darrius S. Shelton fled after Marris Virgil was shot inside a West Keefe Avenue home where children were present.

MILWAUKEE, Wis. — A 21-year-old Milwaukee man is charged with first-degree reckless homicide in the fatal shooting of 37-year-old Marris Virgil after an argument over who owned a PlayStation, according to a criminal complaint. Darrius S. Shelton was not in custody when the charge was filed, and authorities issued a warrant for his arrest.

The charge, filed Sept. 17, puts a name and a detailed allegation behind a Sept. 4 killing that police initially described only as a deadly shooting near North 12th Street and West Keefe Avenue. The complaint alleges that a disagreement over the video game console escalated inside the home while Virgil’s partner and children were nearby. Witness accounts cited by investigators describe a brief confrontation, gunfire and Shelton leaving the house. The case remains an allegation, and the available reports do not show that Shelton has been convicted of any offense connected to Virgil’s death.

The police response began at a house in the 1200 block of West Keefe Avenue at about 6:30 p.m. Sept. 4. According to the complaint, an officer arriving on a report of a shooting found two young boys and a teenage girl on the front porch, screaming. The officer went inside and found Virgil on the floor of a second-floor bedroom with multiple gunshot wounds. Emergency personnel attempted lifesaving measures, but Virgil was pronounced dead at the scene. Early police reports said investigators believed they knew the identity of a suspect but did not immediately announce an arrest.

The confrontation described later by prosecutors began as a dispute among people who already knew one another. Virgil’s long-term romantic partner told detectives that she and Virgil arrived at the residence and found their 10- and 11-year-old sons playing PlayStation games with Shelton, who was described in reports as the boys’ cousin. The adults then became involved in a disagreement over whether the console belonged to Virgil or Shelton. Investigators have not alleged that the gathering began as an encounter between strangers or that the shooting resulted from an attempted robbery.

A second witness supplied investigators with the background to the ownership disagreement. According to the complaint, Virgil and his partner had purchased the PlayStation, but the console later stopped working properly. Shelton paid to have it repaired, the witness said. That repair became part of the competing claims over who was entitled to keep the system. Virgil’s partner told detectives she tried to settle the argument by offering Shelton $260 for the console. She said Shelton rejected the offer. The available reports do not establish whether there had been earlier disputes about the PlayStation before the events of Sept. 4.

The partner told police that the disagreement grew more confrontational and that Shelton and Virgil moved chest-to-chest in what she described as an aggressive posture. She said she briefly turned away from the two men. While she was looking elsewhere, she heard multiple gunshots coming from their direction. When she turned back, she told investigators, she saw Shelton holding a firearm. Her account is contained in the criminal complaint and represents a witness statement to police rather than a finding by a judge or jury.

The woman also alleged that the danger did not end with the shots that struck Virgil. She told detectives that Shelton pointed the firearm at her and threatened to shoot her before leaving the residence. Police and prosecutors have not publicly described a second person being shot in the home. Reports based on the complaint say Shelton then fled. Authorities later sought him through an arrest warrant while releasing his identity publicly in connection with the homicide investigation.

Investigators said physical evidence inside the house was consistent with multiple shots being fired. The complaint described spent 9 mm cartridge casings in the residence, including two near Virgil’s body and another on a stairway leading toward the first floor. An autopsy determined that Virgil had been struck four times, according to reports citing the complaint. Those findings document the number of gunshot wounds and the presence of spent casings but, on their own, do not resolve the legal questions in the case, including the circumstances of the confrontation and Shelton’s criminal responsibility.

The homicide charge emerged nearly two weeks after Virgil’s death. CBS 58 reported Sept. 17 that police were seeking Shelton on a warrant for first-degree reckless homicide. Other coverage of the criminal complaint identified him as Darrius S. Shelton, 21, of Milwaukee. Reports have varied on the maximum possible penalty associated with the charge, and the available material does not provide a sufficiently clear basis to reconcile those figures. What is established in the reporting is that prosecutors accuse Shelton of causing Virgil’s death and that the case had not reached an adjudication when the warrant was reported.

Before the complaint publicly described the PlayStation dispute, Virgil’s relatives spoke about him in markedly different terms: as a father, uncle and family member whose death had left young children without him. Family members told TMJ4 that Virgil was a devoted father of three who regularly spent time with his children, nieces and nephews. His niece, Jameke Hayes, said he took boys to basketball camp and spent time taking girls for ice cream and trips to the park. The family said he had also recently started a new job.

Virgil’s sister, Shilonda Leavy, told the station, “He was my everything. He was our everything,” as relatives gathered after the shooting. A cousin, Takasha Robinson, said Virgil loved his family and wanted to be the best father he could be. Their comments came before the later criminal complaint supplied the detailed allegation about the PlayStation. At that stage, police had said only that a known suspect was being sought, leaving Virgil’s relatives with few public answers about why he had been killed.

The family also described the immediate impact on Virgil’s children. Robinson questioned how relatives could explain the death to young children and said the person responsible should be held accountable. Those comments underscore an element also reflected in the charging document: children were at the residence during the episode and were among the people an officer encountered upon arriving. Authorities have not publicly reported that the children were physically injured, and the complaint excerpts available in news reports do not describe them as participants in the confrontation between the adults.

The arrest warrant is the last confirmed procedural step in the public record reviewed for this story. Shelton was being sought on a first-degree reckless homicide charge after prosecutors filed the complaint Sept. 17, and no later reliable report located for this update confirmed his arrest or a court appearance. Until the case advances, the prosecution’s account of the confrontation remains an allegation that has not been tested in court.

Author note: Last updated November 6, 2026.