Wild Police Chase In Milwaukee Ends With Police Filling Murder Suspect Full Of Lead

A 47-year-old man, suspected in a homicide, late Friday led Milwaukee police on a car chase from the south side to downtown, and when his vehicle became disabled in the busy bar district, exited his car and opened fire on officers.

The return fire from officers killed the man, police said. The Milwaukee County Medical Examiner's Office Saturday afternoon confirmed the suspect was Ernest Terrell Blakney, who police had been searching for since Aug. 25 as the suspect in the killing of his girlfriend.

A bystander, a 22-year-old woman from Hudson, was also shot in the crossfire Friday and was taken to an area hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, according to police. It wasn’t immediately known whether she was shot by police or Blakney.

Last week, Blakney was charged with six felonies in connection to the Aug. 25 death of his partner, Nikia T. Rogers, 36, in the Nash Park neighborhood on Milwaukee’s northwest side. A criminal complaint filed in the homicide case alleged Blakney shot Rogers the morning of Aug. 25, hours after she told a friend she planned to leave Blakney and move her things out of his house.

After allegedly setting the house on fire and fleeing, Blakney was seen later that day at a construction site 8 miles north of the homicide scene. The criminal complaint said he robbed a construction worker of his vehicle at gunpoint.

Blakney forced the worker into a trailer and locked him inside, according to the complaint. The worker eventually escaped and told police there was a gun inside the truck that was stolen.

Blakney was involved in a separate case prior to Rogers’ death. Last year, he was charged with second-degree sexual assault of a child in Milwaukee County and posted a $5,000 cash bail in November.

He pleaded guilty to the charge less than three weeks ago, and was free on bail when Rogers was killed ahead of his sentencing hearing, which had been scheduled for Oct. 20.