Officer, 3 Others Killed in Wisconsin Shootings
OTHSCHILD, Wis. (AP) — Police in northern Wisconsin say an officer and three other people were killed in what apparently began as a domestic dispute in a bank.
Everest Metro Police Chief Wally Sparks said the slain officer was from his department. Sparks did not release the officer's name. The names of the other three dead also were not released.
The shootings happened at a bank, a law firm and an apartment complex, where officers, including a SWAT team, were in a standoff with the suspect late in the afternoon, Wausau police Capt. Todd Baeten said at a news conference. The area is about 90 miles west of Green Bay.
Baeten would not give details of the officer's injuries or those of other victims. But he said authorities were in contact with the suspect and were trying to engage him. He gave no other details. He said the situation was still active and asked residents to avoid the area.
After Baeten's news conference, WSAW-TV reported that about a dozen shots were heard at the building around 5 p.m. and an ambulance arrived at the scene.
A woman who lives in the complex said she looked out her apartment window in the small town of Weston about 1:15 p.m. to see a squad car approach, and a few seconds later heard a gunshot and saw the officer fall. Kelly Hanson, 21, told The Associated Press she saw other officers put the wounded policeman in an armored SWAT vehicle and take him away, but she did not know if he was alive or dead.
"I thought, what is going on? I know what a gun sounds like, and thought 'This isn't good,'" Hanson said. She said she stayed in her apartment until about 4:45 p.m. when she heard a volley of about 10 shots and began to "freak out." Authorities eventually let her leave her apartment.
"It's tragic that had to happen, but I think they did a good job out here today," Hanson said.
Dozens of police cars and emergency vehicles responded after the first shooting happened around 12:30 p.m. at Marathon Savings Bank in Rothschild. Officers responding to a reported domestic situation arrived to find two people had been shot.
A second call came about 10 minutes later from the Tlusty, Kennedy and Dirks law firm in nearby Schofield, and then a third report came in at 1:30 p.m. from an apartment complex in Weston.
SWAT members entered the apartment building about 2:30 p.m., the Wausau Daily Herald reported. Nearby schools and a hospital went on lockdown. The lockdowns were later lifted.
Susan Thompson, a resident of the building, told the newspaper she heard gunshots and heard someone scream. As she left her apartment, police called to her to get inside and lock her doors. Thompson, 21, said she had her 2-year-old daughter in the apartment. Officers later came to her door and helped her and her daughter outside, she said.
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Associated Press reporters Jeff Baenen, Doug Glass and Steve Karnowski contributed to this report from Minneapolis.
