Milwaukee’s Royal Capital Group, which owns the Harmony at Grandview Commons, and Madison’s Horizon Management Services, the apartment complex’s former manager, are facing a lawsuit filed by the family of a 15-year-old girl who died in the crossfire of an alleged gang-related shooting in October 2023, the Wisconsin State Journal reports.
Karnika Miller and Kaliyah Smith, the mother and sister, respectively, of Kyesha Miller, who was killed, are plaintiffs in the suit. They say the owners and former manager of the Harmony failed to take steps that might have protected Kyesha.
Specifically, they allege that Royal Capital and Horizon failed to provide adequate security, surveillance cameras, onsite staff and other services that might have reduced the chances that the far east side property would harbor drug dealing and gang activity.
The lawsuit points, in particular, to the defendants’ failure to install working surveillance cameras for at least 18 months after the complex opened in the spring of 2019, and while Royal Capital did ultimately hire private security to patrol the property, security guards were not based there and allegedly did not often leave their vehicles.
The suit also highlights the hundreds of calls for police service generated at the complex each year and the city’s declaration in 2020 that it was a chronic nuisance — a finding that has since been lifted but has been followed by additional instances of shooting-related violence.
The plaintiffs are seeking to penalize Royal Capital and Horizon, in addition to unspecified amounts of money.
