A Milwaukee woman has been charged with several felonies, including fleeing an officer resulting in death and second-degree reckless homicide, after a police pursuit ended in a fatal crash on Brady Street. According to jsonline.com, Cera A. Wilkerson, age 22, was allegedly speeding on the 1200 block of West Center Street when officers attempted to pull her over. Instead, she fled, leading to a tragic collision that killed 28-year-old West African immigrant Al-Mukhtar Sidiya.
Further details from a CBS 58 report revealed that Wilkerson was estimated to be traveling at approximately 88 mph in a 25 mph zone. In the chaotic pursuit, she nearly struck a pedestrian before eventually blowing through a red light, which caused the deadly impact. The complaint, in a grim tally of her speed, noted Wilkerson was going 60 mph three seconds before the collision without applying the brakes in the five seconds leading up to impact.
The aftermath left Sidiya's passenger, 27-year-old Marquis Ward, with severe injuries including broken bones and a collapsed lung, as per an interview with Ward's brother obtained by WISN 12 News. Ward is conscious and receiving treatment in a hospital.
Wilkerson's purported reasoning behind the flight, as mentioned in her statement to investigators, was "bad anxiety and a bad history with police," resulting in her not remembering what transpired until she struck another vehicle, this statement was recounted by jsonline.com. Brahim Minih, the uncle of victim Sidiya, lamented the loss of his nephew who had moved to Milwaukee to begin anew and had enrolled in an English Second Language school just days prior to the crash, in a statement obtained by WISN 12 News. Meanwhile, Wilkerson now faces a legal battle and, potentially, a lengthy prison sentence as the consequences of her actions unfold in Milwaukee's criminal justice system.
