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US town reels from shooting
08/10/2007 10:45 - (SA)
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| Neighbours gather and hug near where a law enforcement employee went on a shooting rampage, killing six people before being killed. (Andy Manis, AP) |
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Crandon, Wisconsin - An off-duty sheriff's deputy went on an early morning shooting rampage at a home where seven young people had gathered for pizza and movies, killing six and critically injuring the other before authorities fatally shot him, officials said.
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 were students at the high school in this small northern Wisconsin town, and three were recent graduates, a school official said. The gunman 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.
The survivor was in critical condition on Sunday night 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.
'Shock and disbelief and a lot of pain'
Gary Bradley, mayor of the city of about 2 000, said a 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.
"There is probably nobody in Crandon who is not affected by this," Schools Superintendent Richard 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."
- AP
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