Child witnesses father get gunned down after an argument erupted over unpaid debt, authorities say

A suspect is under arrest in connection to the fatal shooting of a man, whose young child witnessed the incident and later identified the alleged killer.

Donta Roberts faces a charge of first-degree reckless homicide after he allegedly gunned down the man on Nov. 24 around 5:30 p.m. in a Milwaukee parking lot.

According to a criminal complaint obtained by WITI, officers responding to the scene found a 29-year-old man dead from a single gunshot wound and collected evidence that included “three spent 9mm cartridge casings and pieces of car parts.”

The shooting victim was not armed at the time of his death, the complaint states, but he “did have an unloaded clip for a gun and some loose bullets.”

Surveillance footage allegedly shows a vehicle in the parking area when the shooting occurred and “muzzle flashes are seen coming from the driver's side of the car, and the car then pulls away” from the victim, who was hit in the back and found lying on the pavement, according to the complaint.

The victim’s “child heard gunshots and saw the car hit a parked car, then drive away,” the complaint states, noting the child allegedly picked Roberts out of a photo lineup and identified him as both the victim's killer and the driver of the car spotted in the parking lot.

The victim later died from his injuries at an area hospital.

On Nov. 25, one day after the shooting, police located the red car seen in the video and began a surveillance operation. According to police, at one point a second car drove up and parked next to the red car they were watching.

Officers allegedly observed Roberts “enter the red car using a key, doing something that activated the red car's alarm," the complaint states. "During the surveillance, it appeared that the man who entered the red car was wiping down the car with a towel.”

Roberts was stopped in the second vehicle a short time later and arrested. The murder suspect allegedly had argued about money the victim owed and “identified himself in that clip as the driver of the red car,” according to the complaint.

Roberts denied committing the homicide or being in the car around the time of the shooting. He was being held on $200,000 cash bond.