Suspects Arrested in Racine Triple Murder

By Tom Murray

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RACINE - Two men wanted for one of the worst crimes in Racine history are now in custody. The triple homicide has been unsolved for almost two years. With the help of the FBI, the Greater Racine County Gang Task Force arrested Demetrus Ozier, 25, and Juwan Matthews, 23, for their involvement in the shootout on July 17, 2005. They were caught Wednesday in Chicago. The shooting happened after an argument over a dice game in the 1300 block of Washington Avenue. Ryan Lockridge, 23, Aaron Woods, 23, and Frank Mister, 22, were killed. Shots injured four others. Police named Ozier and Matthews suspects two months after the crime. Two years later, they were finally caught. “They were involved in that homicide,” said Sgt. Michael Polzin of the Racine Police Department. “We want to talk to them, and we consider them dangerous.” Polzin said people who watched the shootout placed Ozier and Matthews at the scene. While their arrests may bring victims’ families some closure, no arrest will fully heal the wounds. “Reality is still that he’s gone, and he’ll never return again,” reflected Eddie Lockridge. “I miss him daily.” Lockridge, a deacon at Abundant Christian Life Church, lost the youngest of his nine children in the shootout. “I told him, don’t go out in the street because people are killed for no reason,” Lockridge said during an interview with TODAY’S TMJ4 reporter Tom Murray in the sanctuary of Lockridge’s church. “When you live by the gun, you die by the gun.” Now that Ozier and Matthews are in custody, police may be able to piece together who fired shots, and who got caught in the wrong place at the wrong time.