Lexus Ford allegedly told detectives he became furious after finding his vehicle and believing Michael Jackson was among people removing property.
MILWAUKEE, Wis. — Hours before prosecutors say Lexus Ford opened fire on two men near a Milwaukee food truck, Ford believed his Jeep had been taken after he lost a key fob and later found people removing items from the vehicle, according to a criminal complaint.
That alleged dispute is at the center of the prosecution’s explanation for why Michael T. Jackson, 39, was killed early Aug. 28 and a second man was wounded. Ford, 34, is charged with first-degree reckless homicide, first-degree reckless injury and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. Authorities say Jackson was outside a food truck with a friend when a car approached and gunfire erupted. The complaint does not establish that Jackson stole Ford’s Jeep or any property, and the accusation that he was involved in the theft rests in part on what Ford told investigators.
Ford’s account of the night, as summarized in the complaint, began away from the eventual shooting scene. He told detectives that he had been selling liquor from his Jeep and at some point lost his key fob. Other statements described in the complaint suggest there had been gambling that night and confusion over the keys. Ford came to believe Jackson had the fob, police said. He later found the Jeep only a few blocks away, but the recovery did not end the dispute.
According to Ford’s statement to detectives, people were near the Jeep taking things from it when he found the vehicle. Reports based on the criminal complaint say Ford identified Jackson as one of those people. CBS 58 reported that Ford also said a gun associated with the vehicle was among the property involved. Ford described himself as “livid,” a single word that prosecutors can point to as evidence of his emotional state but that does not, by itself, establish who fired the later shots or prove any criminal charge.
Jackson’s own account of the earlier Jeep incident cannot be found in the public charging material because he was killed before police could question him about Ford’s allegation. That leaves an important distinction between what is alleged as motive and what has been independently proved. The available reports do not say Jackson was arrested, charged or adjudicated responsible for stealing the Jeep. Nor do they describe a finding that the items Ford believed were missing had been taken by Jackson. In the homicide case, prosecutors must prove Ford’s conduct, not merely the existence of a property dispute.
By about 3:45 a.m., Jackson was near North 27th and West Walnut streets, where a friend was working at a food truck. The friend told investigators that Jackson arrived and the two talked. When they later walked toward a vehicle, a sedan pulled up alongside them. The surviving man described it as appearing gray. He saw the passenger window open and then heard approximately seven or eight gunshots. The car quickly left. Jackson was hit multiple times, and his friend was struck twice in the lower body.
The number of cartridge casings found at the scene added another dimension to the attack. Detectives recovered 19 spent 9 mm casings, according to the complaint. Milwaukee police responding to ShotSpotter alerts found both victims. Jackson was pronounced dead at about 4:15 a.m. His friend was transported for treatment and survived. The Milwaukee County Medical Examiner’s Office later confirmed Jackson’s identity. Family members said he was known as Mike Lee and described him publicly as a loving father.
Police did not announce a motive immediately. On the day of the killing, local reports described the gunfire as coming from a vehicle and said investigators were still working to determine what caused it. That changed as detectives collected surveillance recordings. Video allegedly showed a sedan circling the area before the shots and departing afterward. Investigators narrowed it to a tan Ford Focus from around the 2005-to-2007 model years that had an easily noticed black rear bumper.
Plate-reader data helped move the inquiry from a description of the car to a specific ownership history. The Focus carried temporary registration information that investigators traced through law-enforcement records. The same vehicle had been stopped about a month earlier while Ford’s brother was driving it. His brother was arrested in that earlier incident and remained jailed at the time of the Aug. 28 shooting, according to the complaint. Authorities said the Focus had been released to Ford, its owner, giving detectives a direct connection between him and the car seen on video.
The investigation then returned to the Jeep dispute through conversations involving people close to Ford. On Sept. 1, Ford’s brother spoke by telephone from jail with Ford’s former girlfriend. Investigators who reviewed the call said the woman discussed Ford’s Jeep, missing property and the possibility that Ford needed to disappear after something had happened. The conversation also included discussion of Ford having lost his keys after gambling. Those statements helped police reconstruct what people around Ford understood about the hours leading to the homicide.
Detectives later interviewed the former girlfriend. She said Ford contacted her after the Jeep was recovered and that she could tell something was wrong. According to the complaint, Ford indicated he had shot and hurt someone. When she asked whether the person had died, he allegedly nodded yes. She also told investigators Ford discussed leaving. Prosecutors can use such an account to support their theory of the case, but the statement remains testimony from a witness whose recollection and credibility can be challenged through the legal process.
Ford himself was interviewed Sept. 5. His statements, as reported from the complaint, connected several elements detectives had already been examining: the missing key fob, the Jeep, property inside the vehicle and Jackson. Authorities say Ford identified Jackson from a photograph. The interview therefore gave detectives more than a vehicle link; it placed Jackson and Ford within the same alleged dispute. The public reports reviewed do not detail a full confession to every element of the charged offenses, making the physical and circumstantial evidence important to the prosecution.
The choice of charges also frames the case differently from a simple allegation of intentional murder. Prosecutors charged Ford with first-degree reckless homicide rather than first-degree intentional homicide. They also charged first-degree reckless injury for the shooting of Jackson’s friend and unlawful firearm possession based on Ford’s status as a convicted felon. Each count carries elements the state must establish independently. The filing of charges represents prosecutors’ allegations, not a determination that Ford committed them.
Another aspect of the case concerns Ford’s status when the shooting occurred. CBS 58 reported that Ford was free on bail in an unrelated Waukesha County drug case on Aug. 28. That pending matter does not prove the new allegations but can affect how courts evaluate release conditions. When Ford appeared in Milwaukee County court on Sept. 10, a judge set a $250,000 cash bond. FOX6 reported that additional bond and preliminary proceedings were scheduled for the following week.
The prosecution now centers on a sharp divide between an alleged property offense and the violence that followed. Ford told police he believed Jackson had been connected to the disappearance of his vehicle or property, while prosecutors allege Ford later participated in a shooting that left one man dead and another injured. Nothing in the public record reviewed establishes that a suspected theft authorized or legally justified the gunfire, and the reports do not describe Ford asserting a court-tested self-defense claim at the shooting scene.
What began, according to Ford’s account, with a lost key fob eventually produced two separate questions for the justice system: what actually happened to the Jeep and its contents, and whether prosecutors can prove Ford criminally caused Jackson’s death and the other man’s injuries. The first remains part of the alleged motive. The second is the subject of the felony prosecution. No final disposition was found in the public reporting reviewed through Oct. 21, and Ford remains presumed innocent of the pending charges.
Author note: Last updated October 21, 2026.