Posted on 10/07/2007 10:23:40 AM PDT by janetjanet998
Edited on 10/07/2007 10:34:41 PM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
Nothing seemed out of the ordinary Saturday night when Tyler Peterson met up with a bunch of friends in a parking lot behind a Crandon bank.
They talked about hunting, what to do later that night. Typical stuff. That was it. It was 8:30 p.m.
But before the sun would rise, Peterson, a 20-year-old, off-duty Forest County sheriff's deputy and part-time City of Crandon police officer, would be suspected of storming into his ex-girlfriend's house and killing her and five other young people at a party, including two of his best childhood buddies.
Another teen was critically wounded.
Peterson would later end up dead, shot by the Crandon SWAT team.
"He must have just snapped," said a close friend who had known Peterson since they were in kindergarten and talked to him in the parking lot Saturday night. "He seemed fine (at 8:30 p.m.)."
Authorities in Crandon, about 180 miles north of Milwaukee, did not release details of the killings or the names of the victims Sunday, but the Journal Sentinel learned from interviews with families and friends that the following were killed:
• Jordanne Murray, 18, Peterson's former longtime sweetheart, who graduated from Crandon High School in 2006.
• Katrina McCorkle, an 18-year-old senior at Crandon High.
• Leanna Thomas, also an 18-year-old senior at Crandon.
• Bradley Schultz, 20, a 2005 graduate of Crandon and a student at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee majoring in criminal justice.
• Aaron Smith, called "Chunk" by his friends, also a 2005 graduate of Crandon. His age was not available.
• Lindsey Stahl, 14, a freshman at Crandon.
Charlie Nietzel, 19, of the neighboring town of Pickerel was wounded. He was in critical condition late Sunday at St. Joseph's Hospital in Marshfield.
Because a local law enforcement officer was involved, the investigation is being handled by the state Department of Criminal Investigation. Officials would not disclose any information Sunday other than to say authorities responded to a report of shots fired at 2:47 a.m., and that six people and the killer were dead.
Three-term Crandon Mayor Gary Bradley expressed anger and frustration at the state's handling of the case, complaining about a lack of information for officials and families and the length of time being taken in removing the bodies from the home.
"Man, they paralyzed this town," he said.
Bradley confirmed that Peterson was shot and killed by the Crandon SWAT team Sunday afternoon, hours after the early morning shootings.
Although few in Crandon knew exactly what happened in Murray's home, in a town where the population barely pushes 2,000, seemingly everyone knew the victims or the shooter.
Fay Statezny has known the Petersons and the families of several of the other victims for 20 years or more. Statezny said Tyler Peterson was "a normal kid" who liked to hunt and fish and loved the outdoors.
He had grown up with Smith and Schultz, and they were all very close friends.
"We would all go mud-running and ice fishing," said Peterson's longtime friend from kindergarten, who didn't want his name published because of the sensitivity of the situation.
He said Peterson and Murray had been together for a long time and broke up earlier this year. He debunked rumors that Murray was dating someone else, sparking a jealous rage in Peterson.
Paul Pitts, a 17-year-old senior, said Peterson was the type of guy who was picked on by students when he was in high school.
Other friends and neighbors said Peterson, who was officially deputized in February, had recently completed special-forces-type training.
It made sense to Jenny Stahl that her 14-year-old daughter, Lindsey, should stay the night at Murray's house. After all, it was homecoming weekend; lots of kids were sleeping at friends' homes. It cut down on the late-night driving. It would be safer that way, they thought.
Lindsey Stahl and Murray both worked at an ice cream and hamburger stand called Eats and Treats in Crandon. They stopped at Stahl's home around 9 p.m. to pick up a change of clothes.
At 8 a.m. Sunday, Jenny Stahl got a knock on her door. Her neighbor told her of the slayings and took her to Praise Chapel Community Church, where she waited with the families of the other victims for word about their loved ones. Stahl hoped for the best.
"I thought maybe she wasn't there, maybe she got out," Stahl said in an interview in her driveway, where she stood with friends and neighbors hugging and drinking Pepsi.
She waited eight hours. At 4 p.m., authorities announced the names of the dead. Lindsey was on the list.
The 14-year-old's half brother, Ryan Coulter, 12, said his sister was smart and interested in issues ranging from global warming to animal rights.
"She probably would have changed the world, you know," he said.
Jenny Stahl grew up in Kenosha and moved her family to Crandon because she thought the small community would be a safer place for her children to grow up.
Elsie Murray, Jordanne's grandmother, said the family was not able Sunday to talk about what happened.
Friends said Jordanne lived in the lower level of the house and her father, Paul Murray, lived in the upper level.
Kelly Flanery, 15, a sophomore at Crandon High, knew all of the victims and said that in addition to working at the ice cream shop, Jordanne Murray worked at Subway in Crandon.
She "was like the nicest person. She was friends with everyone," said Flanery. "I didn't believe it at first. It didn't like sink in, it really hasn't."
Schultz grew up in Crandon but moved to Cudahy two years ago to attend UW-Milwaukee, where he was a junior, said his uncle Steve Bocek, who lives in Oak Creek. Schultz worked part-time at a Racine electrical supply company to pay for school.
The middle of three boys, Schultz often drove to Crandon on weekends to visit his mother, who is blind with retinitis pigmentosa, and younger brother.
"He was just always a nice kid, always polite. He just wanted to come down here to go to school so he could further his education," said Bocek, who last saw his nephew three weeks ago when Schultz visited to swim in Bocek's backyard pool.
Schultz, who had a girlfriend in the Milwaukee area, had played basketball and baseball at Crandon High School.
"He was such a good kid; who would ever expect this?" his uncle said.
McCorkle and Jordanne Murray had been "friends forever," said a former boyfriend of McCorkle's. McCorkle loved to play softball and was thinking about where to attend college, he said. And she was very tight with her family.
"Her family meant everything to her," he said.
Friends said Smith, or "Chunk," as friends called him, was into football and loved to fish.
"He was one of them guys that everybody gets along with," said a childhood friend who also grew up with Peterson and Schultz.
Smith's sister said her family was grieving and couldn't talk.
Thomas' grandfather, Roy Thomas, said his granddaughter has a twin sister, Lindsay. "She was a sweet little girl," he said tearfully before hanging up the phone.
As streets were barricaded near the shooting scene, the soul of Crandon seemed to shake with grief.
"This is affecting everybody in this small community," said Tom Vollmar, a Forest County supervisor who has lived in Crandon for 57 years. "There's no family that hasn't been touched in one way or another."
Schools Superintendent Richard Peters said the victims and Peterson were all "people who we have known or patted on the back or encouraged at one point in time."
Crandon High School's crisis team gathered twice Sunday. Counselors fanned out to area churches to help families and friends of the victims who had gathered there.
School is canceled today.
Praise Chapel Community Church Pastor Bill Farr was called by the Forest County Sheriff's Department at 6:30 a.m. Sunday and asked to open the church for victims' families and other members of the community. About 200 people showed up during the day. He said it took so long for authorities to release the names because state investigators were handling the case.
More than a dozen hours later, Farr was still at the church.
"This is going to take a long time for a community like this to get over," said Farr, who has lived in Crandon for many years.
Standing next to his pickup truck in the church parking lot Sunday night, Farr began to cry as he held hands and prayed with three other church members.
"We just really need everyone's prayers right now," he said.
Don’t know, but since he was only on the department for a week, I’d say it’s time to review recruiting policy.
I lost track on the thread ... where was he taken down?
Search the name.
http://wsau.com/shared/News2005CSS/NewsReadStory.asp?ID=130614&CAT=4
BREAKING NEWS UPDATE: Crandon gunman dead
(WSAU) The suspected gunman in a house shooting in Crandon is dead. He’s identified as 20-year-old Tyler Peterson, a Forest County sheriffs deputy. An Oconto County law enforcement source say Peterson has been killed. It’s not clear if he was shot by officers, or if he took his own life.
At least five – possibly six – people were killed in a shooting at 3am at a house in Crandon. Several of the victims were students or recent graduates of Crandon High School. School officials say counselors will meet with students on Monday.
The motive for the shooting is not clear. A neighbor says she woke up to the sound of gunshots, and heard a car speeding away from the area a short time later. There are also reports that the gunman showed up at a second home after the shooting. That information has not been confirmed by law enforcement.
Now they'll probably say, nobody should have them.
It’s kind of early to decide if the hiring policies weren’t thorough enough. Some people just go bad.
Maybe that's because the aren't tasing little women, pepper spraying little fifteen year old girls, making pregnant women lay on the ground, are shooting kids, are little old ladies, selling dope, molesting high school girls, etc, etc. and such, no reason to talk about the 10% minority.
I suspect that this is what might be a crime of passion. This is only speculation here, but he might have gotten a complaint call about the party, went to investigate, and discovered his “ex” girlfriend in flagrante delicto with one or more of the other victims. It would explain a lot of things, like why a person sworn to uphold the law, and having a gun, lost it completely. I saw a special on PBS a few years ago about what goes on at these young “adults’” parties these days. Just one more consequence of being raised by the Woodstock generation in liberal Wisconsin. It’s not beyond comprehension that that could be what happened. Again, I could be wrong and it’s only speculation. He may not have even known he was an “ex”.
Maybe that's because the aren't tasing little women, pepper spraying little fifteen year old girls, making pregnant women lay on the ground, are shooting kids, are little old ladies, selling dope, molesting high school girls, etc, etc. and such, no reason to talk about the 10% minority.
would not say whether the suspect was dead. But he said: "We're not looking for anybody anymore."
Sounds like they took care of it...hard as it must have been for them...
That’s where I got the snippet I just posted-from your earlier link:)
Ok so there is another officer dead. It was the first officer on the scene last night at 3am.
The reason they could not apprehend them at first was because he had a police radio and was staying a step ahead of them apparently.
Just called again they still will not release the names to the parents but who we believe it is. We need to use the media to our advantage and get them to put pressue on the police to release the freaking names already. Parents have gone through over 12 hours of hell. TELL THEM already!!!
I dont want to post the names in case parents are on here.. especially since I do not know for sure it is them but we are pretty sure. What do ya’ll think?
Sorry, all I see is the box, I never read what’s inside. Why bother?
I think it would be wise to keep it under your hat for a bit...let them be notified and not read of it here.
Just my opinion...
Funny how people read the same thing and come to different conclusions.
I figured since this guy was obviously not concerned about how many others he killed besides the one he was after, that the town was, essentially, put on lock down for their protection = The correct action, I would think, with the perp still on the loose with his gun in such a tiny town...
Don’t post names yet.
You're instinct's correct. Let the officials do the release.
WOW- he killed another LEO first?
Trust your instincts- let it come from officials first. The parents probably know - they haven’t been able to reach their kids by phone...and they haven’t come home.
Please extend my sympathy to your friends. What horrible news to carry to loved ones. My prayers are with all the victims and their families. What a waste. God have mercy on us sinful humans.
The shooter will not be able to hide behind his status as a deputy. Unless he can show he acted in self defense, I doubt he will receive any kind of pass. Indeed I would not be surprised to see this end with his suicide.
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