A criminal complaint combines eyewitness observations, family communications and alleged admissions in the prosecution of Randall Lenyard Sr.
ST. FRANCIS, Wis. — A witness heard gunfire, looked toward a parking lot and saw a man near a vehicle. Within hours, police had a dead woman, a child moved to safety, messages to the suspect’s sister and an arrest that became the foundation of a Milwaukee County homicide case.
The criminal complaint charging Randall Alexander Lenyard Sr., 33, with first-degree intentional homicide and stalking in the death of Kiana Pliska, 32, is built from several kinds of evidence rather than a single account. Prosecutors cite a witness at the Lake Park Apartments, communications Lenyard allegedly sent after the shooting, statements from members of his family, records from Pliska’s restraining-order petitions and an interview in which investigators say Lenyard acknowledged shooting her. Together, those accounts create the state’s initial narrative. They remain allegations, and the evidence has not yet been tested at trial.
The first public piece of the timeline came from the scene. St. Francis police were called to the apartment complex near South Packard Avenue and Lake Drive shortly before 6:30 p.m. on July 16 after several 911 reports of gunfire. Officers found Pliska outside with multiple gunshot wounds and began rendering aid. She was taken to a hospital, where she died. Police later described the incident as domestic-related and said the suspect and victim knew each other. The Milwaukee County Medical Examiner’s Office identified Pliska and classified the death as a homicide caused by gunfire.
A witness account described in the complaint gives investigators an outside view of the shooting. The witness said she first thought the sounds were fireworks, then saw a man standing near Pliska’s sport utility vehicle. According to the filing, she saw him move near the vehicle, make a downward arm motion and fire, then walk around the SUV and shoot again before leaving in a blue sedan. A child was in the back seat of the departing car. Authorities later said the child was the 6-year-old son shared by Pliska and Lenyard.
That witness account is significant because it does not depend on the suspect’s later statements. It gives prosecutors a description of the shooter’s movement, the sequence of additional gunfire and the vehicle used to leave the scene. Reports differ on the exact number of gunshot wounds or shots, so a careful account does not assign a precise total beyond what can be consistently verified. What is common across the reporting is that Pliska was shot multiple times, remained at the scene until first responders arrived and died after being transported for emergency treatment.
The next layer of evidence came from Lenyard’s sister. The complaint says she told investigators that her brother contacted her shortly after the shooting and said he had shot Pliska. She called 911 and continued communicating with him. Investigators say Lenyard then made statements indicating he was thinking about harming himself and the child. The sister’s immediate concern became getting the boy away from him. She kept him engaged in conversation and worked toward an in-person meeting while police were searching for him.
According to the complaint, the proposed meeting location changed before the sister was able to take the child at a Walgreens. Investigators say Lenyard warned her not to bring police and continued making threatening or self-destructive statements during the communications. The boy was transferred safely and was not reported physically injured. The sister’s account matters to the case for two reasons: it describes what happened to the child after the shooting, and it gives prosecutors alleged statements from Lenyard made close in time to Pliska’s death.
Police arrested Lenyard later that evening. Early St. Francis police information said a 33-year-old Milwaukee man was in custody by about 8:20 p.m. and that investigators no longer believed there was a threat to the public. Later court reporting said the arrest followed a police pursuit in the Milwaukee area. Once in custody, the complaint says, Lenyard spoke with detectives and acknowledged shooting Pliska after the two argued during the custody exchange. Investigators allege that he described firing while she was in or near the vehicle and continuing as she tried to flee.
Those alleged admissions are powerful evidence if they are admitted in court, but they are not self-proving. A defendant can challenge how statements were obtained, whether they were accurately recorded and how they should be interpreted. Prosecutors can also seek to corroborate them with physical evidence, witness testimony, phone records and other material. The complaint reflects what investigators say Lenyard told them; a criminal trial, if the case reaches one, would be the setting in which the state must establish the reliability and legal significance of that evidence beyond a reasonable doubt.
The stalking count adds a longer evidentiary timeline. In court petitions filed before her death, Pliska alleged that Lenyard had tracked her movements and repeatedly appeared at places connected to her. She said she found an AirTag on her vehicle in January and later accused him of showing up at her home and workplace, contacting people around her and trying to determine where she was. Those claims were civil allegations made in requests for court protection, but prosecutors now cite them as part of the course of conduct supporting the stalking charge.
Pliska’s filings also describe alleged physical confrontations. She said that during a February incident, Lenyard threatened her and put his hands around her neck while pinning her down. Local reporting based on court records says he was arrested in connection with that episode and later released, though the consulted sources do not give a complete final disposition for any separate case. In April, Pliska obtained a temporary restraining order. The proceeding was later dismissed after she failed to appear at a scheduled hearing. Public records reviewed for this report do not explain her absence.
The final civil-court record was created on the day of the shooting. Pliska filed another petition July 16 and said recent incidents had made her fearful of what would happen next. One allegation involved Lenyard going to her home the previous day and damaging a door while their child was present; local reporting says the boy called 911 during that episode. Several Milwaukee-area outlets that reviewed the court docket report that the new temporary restraining order was granted the morning after Pliska was killed. That timing conflicts with one national report that placed the grant on July 16, so this story follows the more consistently documented local chronology.
At Lenyard’s initial court appearance, Assistant District Attorney Patrick Anderson argued that the alleged conduct had escalated before the homicide and asked for $1 million cash bond. Court Commissioner Barry Phillips set bond at $250,000 and ordered Lenyard not to contact his son or Pliska’s family. The commissioner strongly condemned the conduct described in the complaint while making the bond decision. Those remarks reflected the allegations before the court at that early stage; they were not a verdict, and Lenyard retains the presumption of innocence.
The case therefore rests on overlapping records that prosecutors will have to connect in court: an eyewitness account from the apartment complex, emergency calls, the sister’s description of post-shooting communications, the child’s transfer, Pliska’s earlier civil filings and Lenyard’s alleged statements to detectives. Each source answers a different part of the timeline, and each may face separate evidentiary challenges. The state’s theory is that the shooting was not an isolated encounter but the fatal endpoint of conduct that had already brought Pliska to court more than once seeking protection.
Publicly accessible reports reviewed through Aug. 26 did not show a final disposition or trial result. The latest scheduling information in the consulted coverage listed a preliminary hearing for July 29. Lenyard remains charged with first-degree intentional homicide and stalking, and the prosecution still bears the burden of proving both counts. Until then, the complaint is best understood as the state’s assembled case theory, not a final judicial finding of what happened.
Author note: Last updated August 26, 2026.