Inset (left): Daylan Mallard (Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office). Inset (right): Harry Bruce (Facebook). Background: News footage of the scene in Milwaukee, Wis., after Daylan Mallard was arrested (WISN).
A Wisconsin teacher who was waiting at a bus stop died after a seemingly random attack.
Daylan Mallard, 22, is charged with first-degree intentional homicide in connection with the death of 56-year-old Harry Odele Bruce, a special education teacher for Milwaukee Public Schools. According to a criminal complaint reviewed by Law&Crime, witnesses told police that on the night of Nov. 5, they found Bruce on the ground near a bus stop, allegedly being attacked by a younger man, later identified as Mallard. In the complaint, police wrote that several people who exited the bus saw the end of the attack and tried to help Bruce.
Mallard was found at the scene wearing nothing but his underwear and socks, with bloody clothes on the ground, according to the complaint.
Police said an officer and members of the fire department performed CPR on Bruce, who had "blood coming from his mouth and nose." According to the complaint, the lanyard around his neck had blood on it. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Mallard was taken into custody after police spotted him "pacing" around the area.
An autopsy determined that Bruce died of strangulation and multiple blunt-force injuries to the head and neck. Bruce had suffered several contusions to his face and head as well as "fractures of the distal cervical spine."
Police spoke to several witnesses, including a woman who attempted to intervene when she got off the bus and saw Mallard holding Bruce in a "headlock" and "punching him in the head approximately 20 to 30 times." She told police that Mallard was "bashing that man" and "beating him into the dirt." According to the complaint, the woman told police that Mallard said to her, "I'm gonna come after you too, once I'm done with him." She told Mallard she was calling 911, to which he responded, "I'm coming for you too."
The same witness told police that she saw Mallard "drag" Bruce by the lanyard around his neck. The woman told police that another person said, "That old man was just waiting at the bus stop and this man walked up to him and charged him for no reason."
According to the complaint, three men who were getting food at a nearby restaurant saw another woman come in and say, "So, y'all just gone stand there and let him kill him?" The men told police that they followed the woman outside and saw Mallard strangling Bruce with his lanyard. Police said one of the three men was able to get Mallard's hands off the lanyard, and Mallard eventually let Bruce go. Another one of the men began performing CPR on Bruce until first responders arrived.
Local ABC affiliate WISN spoke to a 9-year-old girl who was with her father when they witnessed the alleged attack on Bruce. The station concealed the identity of the girl, who said that "the guy was on top of the other guy, and then he was … beating him and [kept] doing it."
Police said security video captured the latter part of the attack on Bruce.
Bruce was a special education teacher at Roosevelt Middle School of the Arts for 13 years as well as a mentor, coach and minister. Local Fox affiliate WITI spoke with several members of Bruce's family and his colleagues who said they believed Bruce was "attempting to help a woman who was reportedly being assaulted when he was attacked."
Mallard is in custody at the Milwaukee County Jail on $250,000 cash bond. His next court date is scheduled for Nov. 18.
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