Fatal I-43 shooting in Port sparks manhunt

Authorities search for witnesses after 41-year-old man described as a ‘gentle giant’ was found shot to death along freeway
By 
DAN BENSON
Ozaukee Press staff

UPDATE: Ozaukee County Sheriff Jim Johnson provided more details of Joshua Terry’s shooting on Thursday afternoon press conference and made an appeal for witnesses to step forward.

Johnson said Terry’s 2013 white, four-door Kia Optima entered I-43 at Highway 32 in Grafton and headed north. 

It appears the Kia was traveling below the speed limit, he said. 

It was somewhere between the Saukville interchange at Highway 33 and Northwoods Road in the Town of Port Washington that an incident occurred between Terry’s car and another vehicle, likely a minor accident, which left fresh damage to the Kia, Johnson said.

Both vehicles pulled to the side of the road where Terry was shot and killed.

Witness reports confirm the suspect fled in a vehicle north on I-43 at a high rate of speed, he said. 

Johnson said four vehicles were seen in the vicinity and traveling north at the time. They included:

• A gold or similar color Kia Sedona minivan.

• A yellow older four-door sedan with long, slim vertical taillights.

• A dark-colored SUV, possibly a General Motors product.

• An unidentified vehicle that exited at Highway H on the northside of Port Washington at a high rate of speed at about 6:43 p.m., turned north on Highway H and re-entered I-43 southbound.

Terry’s family also has established a reward fund of $10,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the suspect. 

Anyone with information should contact the Ozaukee County Sheriff’s Office at (262) 284-7172.

Information can also be provided confidentially through Tip 411. 

An anonymous tip can be sent via text message to 847411, using the keyword OZSO with a message. Johnson asked that the message be as descriptive as possible.

 

 

Ozaukee County Sheriff’s investigators are seeking the public’s help in finding the person who shot and killed a 41-year-old Cedarburg man on Friday along the side of I-43 in the Town of Port Washington and drove off. 

Joshua Terry — known as a quiet, gentle hulk of a man who regularly played basketball at the Feith Family YMCA in Saukville and liked to take nighttime drives to relax — was killed at about 6:40 p.m. on Friday near the Northwoods Road bridge over I-43.

According to the Sheriff’s Office, an investigation revealed there had been “minor contact” between Terry’s car, a white 2013 Kia Optima, and an unidentified vehicle in the northbound lanes of the freeway. 

The two drivers apparently pulled to the side of the road and Terry was shot. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

The incident is being investigated as a homicide.

Investigators are in particular looking for anyone who saw a “vehicle of interest” that sped north, exited at Highway H on the north side of Port Washington and then went south on I-43. 

The Sheriff’s Office offered no description of the vehicle.

Anyone with information are asked to call the Ozaukee County Sheriff’s Office at 284-7172.

Chris Lipski, a member of a group that regularly played basketball at the YMCA, said Terry was on one of his evening drives when the incident occurred.

“He liked to drive around the county at night, listen to music and relax,” Lipski, who had known Terry since high school, said. “He was just a very, very sweet man. Always kind and gentle.”

Lipski and Terry had played basketball at the YMCA for nearly 20 years, or at least long enough for no one to be sure exactly how long it had been.

At about 6-foot-eight and weighing 300 pounds, “Big Josh” was also an avid weightlifter.

“Everybody calls him a gentle giant,” Tom Didier, who played basketball with him, said. “Physically, he was the most imposing person I ever met. But very gentle and soft spoken. You could foul him and he would just laugh it off.”

“He was just very easygoing, one of those guys who would ask you how your day was. He’d sit there and chat with you,” Joel Guidinger, the Y’s school age director who also played with the group, said.

“He looks very intimidating, but he’s just the friendliest guy,” Guidinger said. “For him to not be there anymore is going to be tough.”

Terry graduated from Cedarburg High School and, according to his social media page, graduated with a degree in psychology from University of Wisconsin-Stout in 2001.

He served in the Air Force  from 2000 to 2006 as a member of the Wisconsin Air National Guard 115th Fighter Wing based in Madison.

He retired from the military with a disability, his friends said, and was a collector of coins and sports cards.

“When my granddaughter became a big (Milwaukee) Bucks fan, Josh bought her a Giannis (Antetokounmpo) rookie card for Christmas. That was the kind of guy he was,” Jim Ulrich, another basketball player, said.

Off the court, Terry and Ulrich used to meet once a month for breakfast.

“I considered him my brother and best friend. We played together for 15 years,” Ulrich said. 

“We would always get paired up in basketball. I’m only 5-8, but I weigh about 280 so I could match up with him weight wise,” Ulrich said. “My trick with him was to tell jokes and keep him laughing.”

Didier, who said he stands about 5-foot-10, said Terry would take mercy on him.

“He never used his size to beat up on people,” Didier said. “He would be totally fair about it and hang outside the paint when I was covering him.”

When the Y was closed this summer because of the coronavirus, the group played outdoors at Veterans Park in Grafton, providing the group what turned out to be the last summer to remember with Terry.

“Josh came out and played a lot,” Lipski said. “It was a really fun summer doing that.”

Didier said it came as a shock to have spent so many years with Terry and then realize how little he knew about him now that he is gone.

“I wish I knew him better and had longer conversations with him,” he said.

The assumption is that the shooting could have been a road rage incident or possibly a robbery, but nobody knows.

“Police wanted to know if he had any enemies,” Lipski said. “That’s a laugh. He had no enemies. I’m not hopeful they will find whoever did this.”

Ozaukee County Sheriff Jim Johnson was non-committal but said his office is pursuing leads.

“We’re working with our state partners in the Department of Justice,  the Saukville Police Deprtment and our other municipal partners,” Johnson said. “We’re working our statewide system to find leads and tips. We already have received tips from some citizens. We’re working those as well.”

Terry is survived by his wife Renee. Funeral arrangements had not been announced as of Tuesday.

Friends are setting up a reward fund for information leading to the shooter’s arrest and collecting donations to help defray funeral expenses.

For more information, email Lipski at cjl242@nyu.edu.

Johnson said his office also is working with he family to create a reward.

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