BEATRICE – A southeast Nebraska man is in custody in the weekend gunshot death of a female, where responding police were able to get two children out of a home shortly before taking the suspect into custody.


Beatrice Police were summoned by phone from inside the house by a 19-year-old… at the residence along Hillcrest Avenue.  "They had said that the doors were barricaded and they could not get out of the house, so the officers on shift had formulated a plan to basically break into the door and at the same time, coordinate with the kids, like, when we open that door, we want you guys to come up, so you can get out....and that's kind of what happened," said Beatrice Police Director Jay Murphy. 


Police were summoned to the house in the 22-hundred block of Hillcrest Avenue at around 4:30 a.m., Sunday. Southeast Communications Dispatchers were on the phone with a 19-year-old who, along with a 12-year-old where present at the time of the incident.


"The suspect was in another room and came around the corner, and the officers took him into custody at that point."

Murphy says the woman killed was struck by up to three shots from a handgun, which law officers have recovered. No shots were fired at the children in the house, nor at officers when they took the suspect into custody.


The suspect is identified as Christopher Michael Milke…..and he’s being held in the Gage County Jail on suspicion of first-degree murder, two counts of kidnapping and use of a firearm to commit a felony.

Christopher Michael Milke (Gage County Detention Photo)
Christopher Michael Milke (Gage County Detention Photo)  

Murphy says the Nebraska State Patrol is aiding local police in the investigation and a possible motive for the shooting.  "They're getting a lay out of the....the measurements and so forth, of the inside of the residence. They're going to collect some electronics and do some analyzing on those....and hopefully, we can get us an answer."


Police at mid-Sunday afternoon said the victim of the shooting was 42-year-old Tammy Leslie.  Police were asking the public's help in determining a possible motive for the killing.