A quiet night between two friends in Milwaukee turned deadly last week when a woman allegedly opened fire on a guest she had invited over to cut her dog’s hair.
According to police, 32-year-old Jamica Mills told detectives she had grown paranoid after smoking marijuana with 26-year-old Ariel Spillner, a pharmacy student at Concordia University. She claimed she believed Spillner was going to stab her with a pair of scissors she had brought to trim the dog.
Now, Mills is charged with first-degree reckless homicide and use of a dangerous weapon.
Police were called to Mills’s apartment on the night of November 4 after reports of gunfire around 9:43 p.m. When officers arrived, they found Mills conscious but bleeding from a gunshot wound to her stomach. Spillner was face down on the couch, unresponsive. She had been shot once in the shoulder and was pronounced dead minutes later.
A .38-caliber Ruger handgun and two shell casings were recovered near Mills’s body. Police said the hole in her shirt showed evidence of a close-range self-inflicted gunshot wound — suggesting she accidentally shot herself immediately after shooting Spillner.
A witness in the apartment told investigators she had been in a bedroom with Mills’s child when she heard an argument — someone shouting, “b—, you tripping” — followed by two gunshots.
At first, Mills told officers she couldn’t remember what had happened. She said she “woke up in the living room” and then the next thing she knew, she was at the hospital. When detectives pressed her, she claimed Spillner had shot her first — before later admitting she was the one who pulled the trigger.
In her statement, Mills said she and Spillner had gone to the store that evening, then returned home to smoke marijuana together. She told detectives the two women “became paranoid” and that she suddenly thought her friend was going to stab her. “Spillner made a hand motion,” Mills said, “and then I shot her one time.”
Police say Mills admitted she never actually saw scissors in Spillner’s hand, nor did Spillner make any threats.
After the shooting, Mills told investigators she started to leave the apartment but “accidentally shot herself in the stomach.” When asked if she understood that guns could kill people, she said yes — but that she hadn’t meant to kill her friend.
Spillner’s death sent shockwaves through her community. Friends described her as kind and ambitious, balancing pharmacy school with work and volunteering. A GoFundMe campaign launched by her family calls her “a bright light” whose life was “cut short by senseless violence.”
The shooting raises questions about paranoia, mental health, and access to firearms — and how quickly fear can turn into tragedy. Prosecutors say Mills’s version of events shows a “reckless disregard for human life.”
Mills remains in custody on a $150,000 bond and is scheduled for a preliminary hearing on November 17. If convicted, she faces up to 60 years in prison.
