An off-duty sheriff’s deputy fatally shot six young people gathered for a pizza and movie party in a small Wisconsin town before being shot dead later by authorities, officials said. A seventh person was critically injured by the gunman.
The gunman, Tyler Peterson (20), worked full-time as a Forest county deputy sheriff and part-time as a Crandon police officer, said police chief John Dennee.
Three of the victims in the Sunday shooting were students at the high school in this small northern Wisconsin town, and three were recent graduates, a school official said. Peterson may have graduated from the same high school.
Peterson was not working at the time of the shooting early on Sunday, Sheriff Keith van Cleve said.
Van Cleve said he planned to meet with the state attorney general on Monday morning to discuss the case and Dennee said the investigation would be handled by the state department of criminal investigation because the suspect was a deputy and officer.
The survivor remained in critical condition on Monday at a hospital in nearby Marshfield, according to a nursing supervisor. A Crandon police officer who fired back was treated for minor injuries and released.
Gary Bradley, mayor of the city of about 2 000, said earlier on Sunday that a police sniper killed the suspect, but Van Cleve would not confirm that officers shot the suspect.
Peterson was killed on Sunday afternoon 13km north of Crandon in the rural town of Argonne, Dennee said.
The circumstances of the shooting were hazy on Sunday and it was not immediately clear what the gunman’s motive was, but the mother of a 14-year-old victim said the suspect may have been a jealous boyfriend.
”It was a pizza and movie party,” Dennee said.
Three of the victims were Crandon High School students, said schools superintendent Richard Peters, and the other three had graduated within the past three years.
Classes were cancelled for Monday in the town, which is about 360km north of Milwaukee in an area known for logging and outdoor activities.
”There is probably nobody in Crandon who is not affected by this,” Peters said, adding that students would be especially affected. ”They are going to wake up in shock and disbelief and a lot of pain.”
Peters did not know whether Peterson had also graduated from the 300-student high school. But Crandon resident Karly Johnson (16) said that she knew the gunman and that he had helped her in a tech education class.
”He graduated with my brother,” she said. ”He was nice. He was an average guy. Normal. You wouldn’t think he could do that.”
One of the dead was Lindsey Stahl (14), said her mother, Jenny Stahl (39). She said her daughter called her on Saturday night and asked whether she could sleep over at a friend’s house. Jenny Stahl agreed.
”I’m waiting for somebody to wake me up right now. This is a bad, bad dream,” the weeping mother said. ”All I heard it was a jealous boyfriend and he went berserk. He took them all out.”
Dennee declined comment on whether Peterson had a romantic relationship with any of the victims. — Sapa-AP