Prosecutors say the victim was shot after an argument inside a home near North 22nd Street and West Locust Street.

MILWAUKEE, Wis. — A Milwaukee woman is charged with killing a 63-year-old man after an argument over a food delivery turned violent inside a North Side home around 12:30 a.m. Feb. 21, leaving the man dead at the scene and raising new questions about how a small dispute became a homicide case.

Prosecutors say Bonnie Blackwell, 41, shot Charley Collins during a confrontation that began after Collins returned to the house with delivered food and believed part of the order was missing. Blackwell now faces first-degree intentional homicide and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. The case matters because investigators say witness statements, physical evidence and Blackwell’s own words after the shooting could shape whether jurors see the gunfire as a sudden act during an argument or as an intentional killing.

According to the criminal case, the trouble began shortly after midnight at a house near the 2900 block of North 22nd Street. A witness told police Collins went outside to meet a delivery driver and brought food back into the home. When he returned, the witness said, Blackwell confronted him and the two started arguing. Blackwell later told detectives she heard Collins saying that “somebody stole his chicken” and said she looked outside and saw a Dr Pepper on the porch but no chicken. The dispute moved through the house as tempers rose. A witness said Collins placed the food in a bedroom and then walked into the kitchen. Blackwell, the witness said, came out of her bedroom carrying a gun, yelled at Collins and fired one shot before running outside. Officers arrived a short time later after a report of a shooting.

Police said they found Collins in the kitchen with a gunshot wound. Despite efforts to save him, he died at the scene. Investigators recovered a fired bullet near his feet and a single spent casing in a hallway, details prosecutors later used to help reconstruct the shooting inside the home. Blackwell gave detectives her own account after her arrest. According to the complaint, she said Collins was “coming towards her in the hallway, aggressively calling her names,” and she backed up before the gun went off. But the same complaint says she also admitted she shot Collins in the back as he was walking away. That point is central to the case because it cuts against an immediate self-defense claim and places the fatal shot after the closest part of the face-to-face argument may have passed. Authorities have not described any evidence that Collins had a gun or another weapon. Court records available so far also do not answer why Blackwell had the firearm in the house or how long the dispute lasted before the shot.

The setting adds to the case’s weight. This was not a shooting in a parking lot, on a sidewalk or during a robbery by strangers, but inside a residence during an argument among people who were already there. That detail can matter in how witnesses describe tone, movement and fear. It also means prosecutors are likely to rely heavily on the layout of the home, the location of the bullet and casing, and the sequence of steps inside the hallway and kitchen. Police have said the shooting happened near 22nd and Locust, a well-known Milwaukee intersection on the North Side. In many homicide cases, prosecutors use broad street descriptions because they establish place for the public while more exact addresses remain tied to court filings and police reports. Here, the location and the domestic setting help explain why the case moved quickly from a patrol response to a witness interview and a detailed complaint. The argument itself, centered on missing food from a delivery, has drawn attention because of how ordinary the trigger appears compared with the deadly outcome prosecutors describe.

Investigators say the case did not rest on the scene evidence alone. As detectives continued their work, they learned Blackwell had contact by phone with jailed inmates around the time of the shooting. The complaint says one call to Blackwell’s phone on the day of the shooting included a statement that “I just shot somebody last night, and I think I killed him — I am going to be on the run.” Prosecutors say the caller then described the shooting in detail. Blackwell was later arrested Feb. 24 at a mental health facility in West Allis, according to the complaint summarized in local reporting. She is charged with first-degree intentional homicide, one of Wisconsin’s most serious felony counts, and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. An initial court appearance was scheduled for Feb. 28. The next major procedural steps are likely to include review of bail conditions, appointment or confirmation of counsel, and later hearings on probable cause, evidence and trial scheduling. The complaint also says investigators believe Blackwell later sold the gun for $200, a detail that could lead to further evidence recovery efforts if the weapon is located and tested.

Even in a case built on forensic details and charging language, the human dimension remains stark. Collins was a 63-year-old man who, by the accounts now in court, had gone to get delivered food just before he was shot. What should have been a brief handoff at the door ended in a kitchen death investigation. Blackwell, 41, now stands accused of crossing the line from argument to intentional killing in a matter of moments. The witness account and Blackwell’s statement do not fully answer the same questions neighbors often ask after a shooting inside a home: how fast voices escalated, whether anyone tried to separate the two, and whether the confrontation could have ended before a gun was drawn. Those unknowns are likely to be addressed only through additional testimony, recordings and evidence turned over during the court process. For now, the clearest public picture is a short, chaotic chain of events marked by a missing meal item, a hallway confrontation and one fatal shot.

The case remained at the charging stage as of the latest public reports, with Blackwell accused and Collins identified as the man killed. The next clear milestone was Blackwell’s initial appearance in Milwaukee County court on Feb. 28, where the case was expected to move from police allegations into the formal court record.

Author note: Last updated March 26, 2026.