CRANDON, Wis. — An off-duty sheriff’s deputy started shooting in a home in northern Wisconsin early Sunday, killing three high school students and three recent graduates before authorities fatally shot him, officials said.
Another victim was in critical condition.
The gunman, Tyler Peterson, was 20 years old and worked full-time as a Forest County deputy sheriff and part-time as a Crandon police officer, Sheriff Keith Van Cleve said. The deputy was not working at the time of the shooting, he said.
The survivor was hospitalized in nearby Marshfield, said Police Chief John Dennee. 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 Sunday that Peterson had been brought down by a sniper, but Van Cleve would not confirm that officers shot the suspect.
It wasn’t 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. The shooting occurred in a two-story duplex about a block from downtown Crandon.
Three of the victims were Crandon High School students, said schools Superintendent Richard Peters, and three were recent graduates.
“There is probably nobody in Crandon who is not affected by this,” Peters said.
One of the dead was 14-year-old Lindsey Stahl, said her mother, Jenny Stahl, 39.
She said her daughter called her 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.”
Karly Johnson, 16, said that she knew Peterson 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.”
Marci Franz, 35, who lives two houses south of the duplex, said gunshots awoke her.
“I heard probably five or six shots, a short pause and then five or six more,” she said. “I wasn’t sure if it was gunfire initially. I thought some kids were messing around and hitting a nearby metal building.”
Then she heard eight louder shots and tires squealing, she said.
“There’s never been a tragedy like this here,” she said. “There’s been individual incidents, but nothing of this magnitude.”
The Crandon School District called off classes today.
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