A 26-year-old Madison man is being held on a $1 million cash bond after prosecutors charged him with first-degree intentional homicide in the fatal shooting of 21-year-old Travion Flowers inside a Troy Drive apartment. Ben Washington III made his initial court appearance in Dane County Circuit Court on Tuesday, where a judicial officer set his bail as he remains detained in the Dane County Jail.
Prosecutors said during Tuesday's proceedings that the shooting happened inside an apartment on Troy Drive, after which Washington called emergency dispatch himself to surrender, according to WMTV. Madison police officers had been dispatched to the 700 block of Troy Drive at 9:33 p.m. Saturday after reports of shots fired and a victim found with multiple gunshot wounds, per data from the City of Madison. Flowers, who lived in Madison, died at the scene despite officers' attempts at life-saving measures.
The Dane County Medical Examiner's Office later confirmed that Flowers died as a result of homicidal firearm trauma and identified him as the man killed in the shooting, according to WMTV 15 News. Washington has been identified as the suspect in the case, though it remains unclear what relationship, if any, existed between him and Flowers or what led to the shooting.
Class A Felony Carries Mandatory Life Sentence
First-degree intentional homicide is classified as a Class A felony under Wisconsin Statute § 940.01, which carries a mandatory penalty of life imprisonment upon conviction, according to the Wisconsin State Legislature. Wisconsin does not have capital punishment, meaning life imprisonment represents the maximum possible sentence Washington could face if convicted.
The killing adds to a weekend that also saw Madison police investigate a separate shots-fired incident in the Allied Drive area on the city's Southwest Side early Sunday morning, in which gunfire struck an occupied vehicle and nearby residences, the Wisconsin State Journal reported. The back-to-back calls illustrate the kind of concentrated gun violence that continues to strain police resources even as citywide numbers trend downward.
Homicide Comes Amid Broader Drop in Violent Crime
Madison recorded five total homicides throughout all of 2025, according to the Wisconsin State Journal's earlier reporting. The Madison Police Department has reported an overall decline in violent crime that year, including drops in shots fired, homicides, burglaries and auto thefts, crediting some of the progress to targeted community outreach initiatives, per the City of Madison.
Regionally, firearm deaths remain a persistent public health concern. Public Health Madison & Dane County data show an average of 40 people per year in the county die from firearm violence over the past decade, with roughly 80 percent of those deaths attributed to suicide and a smaller share to homicides. Statewide, firearm violence claimed 735 lives across Wisconsin in 2024, including 207 homicides and 507 suicides, according to figures compiled by the Violence Policy Center.
The Troy Drive shooting follows another fatal, high-profile use of force in Madison just weeks earlier, when a Madison officer fatally shot a bicyclist near the Capitol on Williamson Street. Washington remains held in the Dane County Jail as the case proceeds, with the motive behind the shooting still unresolved.
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