By the time officers reached the Milwaukee intersection, the pickup and SUV had come to rest about 100 feet from the road. Investigators later wrote that the two vehicles looked as if they were “attached to each other” in a permanent T shape. The man police say was behind the wheel was gone.
Prosecutors in Milwaukee County now accuse 22-year-old Dayton Milligan of causing that collision while racing his cousin at more than 100 miles per hour in a 35-mile-per-hour zone. According to a probable cause affidavit summarized by Law&Crime, the January nighttime crash killed 34-year-old emergency medical technician Meng Kue, who was driving a Volkswagen Atlas through the intersection of North 76th Street and West Glendale Avenue.
The Crash at 76th and Glendale
Investigators say the impact was the end of what witnesses described as a street race on North 76th Street. A woman told detectives that she was stopped at a light at 76th and Appleton Avenue when a black Chevrolet pickup pulled up beside her. When the light turned green, she said, the pickup and two other cars accelerated hard down 76th Street.
At the next major intersection at Glendale Avenue, she reported seeing the pickup strike a Volkswagen that was crossing 76th. When officers arrived a short time later, they found the Chevy Silverado and the Volkswagen about 100 feet from the roadway, locked at a right angle. Detectives wrote in the affidavit that the vehicles appeared to be “attached to each other” in a T-bone position.
Data pulled from the pickup’s electronic systems indicated that the driver was traveling 106 miles per hour two and a half seconds before impact and 101 miles per hour half a second before the crash, according to the affidavit cited by Law&Crime. The posted speed limit on that stretch of road is 35 miles per hour.
Witness Accounts and Alleged Flight
The same witness told police that she saw a man wearing a blue “puffy” winter coat climb out of the damaged pickup immediately after the collision. According to the affidavit, she said he looked “shaken” but did not appear to have visible major injuries. She told investigators that he took items from inside the truck, then got into one of the other cars that had been racing and left the area.
Detectives say a later tip helped identify the driver of that second car as 37-year-old Earl Gordon, who is described in the affidavit as Milligan’s cousin. Investigators wrote that a witness reported Gordon had been calling around seeking medical treatment for Milligan while trying to avoid taking him to a hospital. According to that tip, Gordon allegedly said Milligan had a knee wound that was “showing the bone” and that the cousins often raced their vehicles.
How Investigators Traced a Name
Police searched the abandoned Silverado and reported finding paperwork and a visitor badge bearing Milligan’s name, including an item from a children’s hospital. Surveillance video from that hospital showed Milligan leaving the facility about 20 minutes before the crash, according to the affidavit obtained by Law&Crime. The document does not state who he had been visiting.
After obtaining an arrest warrant, officers took Milligan into custody several days later. The affidavit states that he had a large, “hastily applied” bandage on his knee that was soaked with blood. Officers wrote that it “did not appear consistent” with bandaging done by medical professionals. During a search of his residence, investigators reported recovering a blue puffy jacket that matched the description given by the witness, along with a pair of bloody pants.
An autopsy on Kue found a spinal cord injury and multiple fractures to his skull and ribs. The Milwaukee County Medical Examiner’s Office determined that his cause of death was blunt force trauma, according to the summary in Law&Crime.
A Victim Who Spent His Life Helping Others
Local station WITI Fox 6 reported that Kue worked as an EMT for Bell Ambulance in Milwaukee. He was 34 years old. In a statement released through the company and quoted by both outlets, his family described the loss and the outpouring of support.
“We are thankful for the outpouring of support from everyone in the community since the sudden loss of our beloved Meng,” the family said. “He was adored, cherished, and will be incredibly missed by his family and friends. We are extremely grateful to the first responders and law enforcement officials who have and will continue to assist with this tragedy.”
Publicly available reports do not yet detail where Kue was heading when the crash occurred or whether he was working or off duty. Both Law&Crime and WITI describe him as an experienced emergency responder who had been serving the Milwaukee community.
New Charges and an Earlier Homicide Conviction
Milligan now faces three felony counts. According to charging documents cited by Law&Crime, prosecutors have charged him with first-degree reckless homicide, hit and run involving death, and knowingly operating a vehicle while his driving status was revoked. The first count is a Class B felony under Wisconsin law, as defined in section 940.02 of the state statutes. A conviction could result in a lengthy prison term.
Police wrote in the complaint that Milligan did not have a valid driver’s license at the time of the crash and that he had never been licensed to drive in Wisconsin. The operating while revoked charge alleges that he chose to drive anyway while his driving privilege was withdrawn following earlier conduct.
Those earlier cases are significant. In its reporting, Law&Crime notes that Milligan “was involved in another hit and run in 2020” and that he was convicted of second-degree reckless homicide and hit and run causing death in connection with that prior crash. The outlet attributes those details to police and court records. Public court databases for Wisconsin were not immediately referenced in the available coverage, so additional specifics about that earlier case, including the sentence imposed and the terms of any supervision, have not yet been widely reported.
At this stage, all of the new allegations remain unproven in court. Milligan is entitled to the presumption of innocence and has the right to challenge the evidence against him. As of this writing, media outlets have not reported a detailed response from his defense attorney, and court filings describing his position on the charges were not cited in the publicly available articles.
Street Racing, Supervision, and Open Questions
The latest case against Milligan comes amid ongoing concern in Milwaukee about street racing and extreme speeding on city streets. In recent years, local law enforcement agencies and city officials have announced targeted enforcement operations and infrastructure changes aimed at curbing illegal racing. How often those efforts intersected with Milligan or his cousin, and whether any prior warnings or citations were issued before the January crash, is not addressed in the affidavit summarized by Law&Crime.
The reporting so far also leaves open questions about supervision following Milligan’s 2020 conviction. It is not yet clear from publicly cited documents whether he was on probation, extended supervision, or parole at the time of the new crash, and what conditions may have been in place regarding driving or vehicle access. Those details typically appear in sentencing records and supervision orders, which have not been quoted in current coverage.
What is documented is the basic sequence laid out by investigators. A truck that data shows was traveling at triple the speed limit. A Volkswagen crossing a city intersection. A driver who, according to witnesses and police, left the scene and sought medical help away from any hospital. And a victim whose family now remembers an EMT who spent his working life responding when others called for help.
