Prosecutors say surveillance video shows Robbiel Stokes opening fire on 16-year-old Camron Bowen seconds after the classmates left a county bus.

MILWAUKEE, Wis. — A 15-year-old boy accused of fatally shooting a classmate seconds after the two stepped off a Milwaukee County bus has been taken into custody, police said, ending a search that began after prosecutors charged him with first-degree intentional homicide in September.

Milwaukee police said Nov. 5 that Robbiel Stokes had been arrested in connection with the Sept. 19 death of 16-year-old Camron Bowen. The announcement marked a major change in a case that had remained unresolved for weeks after authorities obtained a warrant for Stokes but could not immediately locate him. Prosecutors allege Stokes shot Bowen after the two teenagers, both students at Bay View High School, rode together on a Milwaukee County Transit System bus and had what the criminal complaint described as a heated conversation. Stokes is accused of using a dangerous weapon in the killing. The charge is an allegation, and the case has not been decided in court.

The prosecution’s case relies heavily on surveillance footage from the bus, witness statements and evidence collected after the shooting. According to the complaint, Bowen was already aboard the bus when Stokes later got on. The boys were seen near each other in the back of the vehicle, and their conversation appeared to grow tense before they left the bus near Layton Boulevard and Greenfield Avenue. Investigators said the video then showed Stokes following Bowen through the rear door. Police wrote that about six seconds after the teenagers stepped outside, Stokes pulled a handgun from his clothing and began firing while Bowen’s back was turned. Bowen tried to run around the front of the bus, the complaint says.

The bus driver gave investigators another account of the shooting. He said he was still allowing passengers to get off when he heard gunfire outside. The driver told police he saw Bowen running and saw Stokes behind him with what appeared to be a silver handgun. According to the complaint, the driver said Stokes caught up with Bowen, fired several more times and briefly looked toward him after he fell before leaving the area. The driver then contacted dispatchers to report the gunfire. The Milwaukee County medical examiner determined that Bowen had six gunshot wounds, according to reporting based on the complaint. Early public reports differed on whether Bowen died at the scene or after being taken to a hospital, but authorities agreed that the shooting was fatal.

Investigators also learned that the two teenagers had a recent history at school. The principal of Bay View High School told police that Bowen and Stokes had been involved in a fight on Sept. 16, three days before the shooting. Prosecutors have cited that encounter as part of the events preceding the killing, though the available records do not establish every detail of the dispute or prove a motive beyond the allegations contained in the complaint. Bowen’s mother later told local reporters that her son had been standing up for himself and others. Police and prosecutors have not publicly released evidence establishing that account as the definitive reason for the shooting.

Minutes after the gunfire, investigators say, Stokes contacted his mother and asked her to pick him up. According to the complaint, she told police that she found him on a street after the shooting and that he was wet from the rain. Other local reporting based on the complaint said she described him as nervous and wearing different clothing. She drove him to his grandmother’s house. When investigators later showed her surveillance images from the transit system, she identified her son as the person depicted, according to prosecutors. Her identification became one piece of the evidence authorities cited when seeking the homicide charge.

Police later searched the mother’s vehicle with her consent and found a .40-caliber cartridge on the floor in the rear passenger area, the complaint says. Investigators reported that the cartridge was the same brand and caliber as casings recovered from the shooting scene. That evidence does not by itself resolve the criminal case, but prosecutors included it along with the bus footage, witness descriptions and the mother’s identification when laying out their allegations against Stokes. Authorities have not publicly announced that the handgun used in the shooting has been recovered, and the available reports do not describe any statement from Stokes addressing the accusation.

Bowen’s death devastated relatives who gathered near Layton Boulevard and Greenfield Avenue the following day for a vigil. Balloons, flowers, candles and photographs were placed near the shooting site. Family members said Bowen was a sophomore at Bay View High School and had celebrated his 16th birthday only days before he was killed. His mother, Jennifer Cassidy, described him as her best friend and said his death left her numb and heartbroken. She later said she was relieved that investigators had identified a suspect but was distressed that he had not yet been arrested at the time she spoke to reporters.

Cassidy also described her son as smart and as a teenager who had plans for his future. Other relatives remembered his smile and his willingness to help people close to him. Bowen’s aunt, Nicole Cassidy, told TMJ4 that the family would now miss milestones they expected to see, including his high school graduation. The family used interviews after the killing to call attention to gun violence involving young people, while also emphasizing the personal loss behind the criminal case. Those accounts offered a different view of Bowen from the evidence-focused descriptions in the complaint: a teenager whose relatives said he loved anime, cared about others and had expected to go on to college.

The case initially unfolded as both a homicide investigation and a search for a teenage suspect. Prosecutors filed the first-degree intentional homicide charge on Sept. 25, six days after Bowen was killed, and a warrant was issued when Stokes was not in custody. Local television stations published his name and images obtained from transit surveillance as authorities continued looking for him. For more than a month, public reporting still described him as wanted. CBS 58 updated its coverage Nov. 5 to report that Milwaukee police had taken Stokes into custody, although the brief police update did not provide details about where or how the arrest occurred.

Stokes now faces the homicide case while in custody rather than as a wanted suspect. Authorities have not publicly released a new account of the arrest, and the most recent verified reporting reviewed for this story does not establish the outcome of any subsequent court hearing. The allegations against him remain unproven unless established in court. For Bowen’s family, the arrest closes the search phase of the case but leaves the criminal proceedings over the 16-year-old’s death still to be resolved.

Author note: Last updated Nov. 9, 2026.