Victim found in back of truck in Milwaukee
By BRIAN LEAHY
of The Gazette
Milwaukee police are continuing to investigate the shooting death of a 77-year-old Amherst man last weekend.
Leonard Patoka, 5953 Highway EE, was found dead shortly after 8:30 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 5, in the back of his pickup, which was parked in an alley behind a vacant house in a north side neighborhood of Milwaukee, a Milwaukee County Medical Examiner's Office report said. The neighbor who called 911 reported the pickup was not there at 8 p.m. Friday.
The suggested manner of death is a homicide, according to the report. Patoka was found lying nearly face down in the back of his 1991 model Chevrolet pickup truck, which is covered with a homemade wooden topper, with his head resting on the open tailgate. He had a gunshot wound to his right temple area. Authorities recovered one .25-caliber spent cartridge casing near Patoka's feet.
"Other significant evidence was a wallet with spilled contents in the grass just a few feet north of the back of the truck," the report said. No money was in the wallet. Authorities found only $2.79 in change in his personal effects. Investigators also found the front seat of Patoka's truck was "strewn with paper, clothes, and other items." Other recovered personal effects included an empty prescription bottle and a watch.
The incident happened in 2000 block of N. 2nd Street, which is a part of Milwaukee known as a high-crime area. The Milwaukee Police Department Criminal Investigation Bureau's Homicide Division is investigating the case. No one is in custody, police said.
Patoka, a potato farmer, had left Amherst for the Milwaukee area at 9:30 a.m. Friday, Jan. 4, with about 20 sacks of potatoes to take to various stores and restaurants in the Milwaukee area, the report said.
He was also a long-time vendor at the Watertown Farmers Market, where he was known as the "Potato Man" and sold potatoes each second Tuesday of the month.
Family members released a statement following his death, in which they said he loved "to play cards, visit casinos, deer hunt and spend time with relatives and friends." They called him a "devoted brother, a husband, a father, a grandfather and a great-grandfather to a very large Christian family."
"Words cannot describe the pain and sadness our family is feeling during this unbelievable tragedy," they said.
The turnout at the wake on Wednesday, Jan. 9, at Jungers-Holly Funeral Home in Amherst was amazing. The crowed lined up outside and stretched from the funeral home in the middle of the block northward, almost to the corner of Country Trunk B.
Funeral services were held Thursday at St. Mary of Mount Carmel Catholic Church in Fancher. Burial was in St. Mary of Mount Carmel Cemetery.
A complete obituary can be found inside this week's issue of The Gazette.