Rakayo Alandis Vinson Charged in Kenosha County Bar Shooting That Killed 3

A 24-year-old man is being held on homicide charges, in a shooting at a Kenosha County bar that left three men dead and three others wounded on Sunday.

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Rakayo Alandis Vinson of Racine, Wisconsin was arrested Sunday and charged with one count of first-degree intentional homicide, according to the Kenosha County Sheriff’s Department. His bond was set at $4 million on Monday, and he is being held at the Kenosha County Jail.

Rakayo Vinson

The shooting took place early Sunday morning Sunday inside the Somers House, at 1548 Sheridan Rd. in the village of Somers, and another exchange of gunfire took place outside in the street.

“It’s a difficult day in Kenosha, and recently today I found out that they’ve been something like 40 mass shootings in this country in the last month,” said Kenosha County Sheriff David Beth, “and to think that Kenosha is part of something so tragic, it just breaks your heart.”

Beth said Monday that the chain of events started a little bit before 12:42 a.m. Sunday – when a scuffle broke out between Vinson and the three men who were later shot dead. Vinson was kicked out of the bar, and he went outside – only to come back in with a gun and open fire, Beth said.

Two of the men who died were shot inside the bar. A third was shot across the street along Sheridan Road, and got into a car with a driver who drove a few blocks and flagged down police to help him – but he then died, Beth said.

Three other men were wounded in the shooting, Beth said. It was not believed that they were intended targets, he said.

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At a virtual bond hearing Monday, Kenosha County District Attorney Michael Graveley said suspect Vinson fled to another county, and was apprehended when a relative called police and reported he had taken a car without permission.

Graveley said Vinson first denied having been at the tavern, but then admitted he had been there after detectives said his ID had been found there and he was on video.

Vinson also admitted that he had been in possession of a gun and that he was in a fight. When detectives asked Vinson if he was the shooter he said, “I blacked out and s**t went down,” Graveley said.

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“The current indication is that this was literally over nothing,” Graveley said. {snip}

This occasion was also the fourth time that Vinson has been arrested for illegal possession of a weapon in the past 10 years, Graveley said.

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Sheriff Beth on Monday described the arc of violence in the area over his 39-year career in law enforcement.

“When I started as a deputy sheriff in 1982, if we had one homicide every other year that was huge.,” Beth said. “So things are different now than it was for me when I first started as a deputy, and we’re not Mayberry anymore.”

{snip}In the last week alone, there have been mass shootings in Indianapolis; Austin, Texas; and Kenosha.