Man Gets 18 Months for Shooting Up Milwaukee Home

A Wauwatosa man who shot up a Milwaukee house in May after he was kicked out a party, will spend the next 18 months in prison.

Ryan L. Baltz, 22, was sentenced to 18 months in prison and 36 months extended supervision Tuesday by Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge J.D. Watts. Baltz could have been sentenced up to 12½ years in prison, but his charges were amended in August as part of a plea deal with prosecutors.

The accused getaway driver in the shooting, Rahul Singh, 20, of Brookfield, is awaiting trial on his charge of endangering safety by use of a dangerous weapon from a vehicle. His next court appearance is Oct. 26.

On May 13, Milwaukee police officers were called to a home in the 4800 block of North 70th Street by a woman living there who said someone had driven up and fired a gun multiple times into the house from a white van, according to the criminal complaint against Baltz.

The woman’s children were home at the time of the shooting, and a number of bullet holes were found inside the living room.

No one at the home was sure whose van it was, but they said that earlier in the night there had been a party at the residence, and a visitor had been kicked out after he got into a fight. Someone present recognized the van as the same one driven by another man, Singh of Brookfield, who had brought Baltz to the party.

Singh was later arrested by Brookfield police officers for drunk driving in that community and was questioned by Milwaukee police about the shooting. He told officers that Baltz, angry about being thrown out of the party, had insisted they return and had even held a gun on Singh to get him to turn back.

It turned out that Baltz was already in jail, awaiting sentencing on a conviction for criminal damage to property in an earlier case. Police monitored his phone calls and overheard him telling his mother he had shot up a home.

When questioned, he admitted he and Singh had gone back to the party house that night and that he, Baltz, had fired multiple gunshots into it.

Afterward, he said, he and Singh had gone to Denny's restaurant for a bite to eat.