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.
I always enjoy being lectured on judgmentalism by a judgmentalist. But then, I enjoy irony.
“I moved my kids from the city to live here where it is/was safe! Where I did not have to worry about them. Just goes to show no where is safe.”
True. Very sorry to hear this happened in your town.
... then the “cops can do no evil” crowd will have months before his trial to think of millions of reasons why society pushed this honorable man over the edge. Then after he’s convicted we’ll have months of “write Bush now!!” demanding his release because any damn fool knows that cops can do no evil. ...
If not the readers of this website, who is being slandered? Why post this predictive accusation here?
I grew up in Crandon. It’s unbelievable. I’m sure the mayor used the words gag order to allow time for the facts to be sorted out. It’s not like Crandon has much experience in such a disaster. My prayers go out to all of the parents of all killed. The officer must have been a very troubled youth and maybe a bit too young for such a position.
He forgot his taser?
I understand completly.
We moved to a little rural area 20yrs ago. Takes about 2hrs to get here over the coast range.
Just in the last few years non domestic attacks/murder rate has gone up. Use to only have a murder every few years in our County.
I saw a man interviewed on the news who new the killer’s parents and said the killer was a good kid straight A student and said (as you did) this is just not something that happens in our town.
Well I just got the call. All of the family knows our family friend is gone. Her name was Leanna Thomas and she was a beautiful, smart, responsible high school senior who had a very promising future stolen from her. :(
Welcome to FR. It’s better to live where things like this are unbelievable. Trust me.
Damm. Sad.
My Condolences on the loss of your friend.
Deputy Kills 6 People in Crandon
Suspect Shot and Killed Hours LaterSean O'Flaherty
CRANDON - An off duty deputy sheriff shot and killed six people in Crandon early this morning. That's about 25 miles east of Rhinelander.
The deputy is Tyler Peterson. He fled from the scene, but he was surrounded by police, north of Crandon early this afternoon. Peterson is from Crandon. He was shot to death. It is not clear if he killed himself or if he was killed by a SWAT team.
The original shooting occurred at a home in Crandon about 3 o'clock this morning. Crandon township supervisor Ray Statezny Jr. said that the shooting was the result of a love triangle involving the deputy, a young woman, and another police officer.
"All I really heard was that there was a shooting," Statezny said. "Two officers was involved. There's either 5 or 6 people dead. And the last thing I heard was the shooter was dead. The one officer that did the shooting was going with the one girl that got killed. Then they split up and this other officer started going with her," Statezny said.
Another resident says he heard suspect broke up with girlfriend last week. She is apparently still in high school. This was supposedly a homecoming party.
After Peterson fled the scene, he reportedly took six people hostage in a home north of Crandon.
A dispatcher for the State Patrol who declined to give his full name said several of its officers had gone to Forest County to aid in the investigation because the alleged shooter is an employee of the Forest County Sheriff's Department and a part-time officer for the Crandon Police Department.
"We're not looking for anybody anymore," said Crandon Police Chief John Dennee, who was outside the police department, no more than two blocks from where the shooting occurred. Dennee declined comment when asked whether the suspect was dead.
But Statezny said he heard that the suspect was shot and killed in the Town of Argonne.
WJFW in Rhinelander also said it has confirmed that the suspect died on county Highway N, north of Crandon.
Two of the victims were students at Crandon High School. The other four were recent graduates.
Sacred Heart St. Mary’s Hospital in Rhinelander said it treated and released one victim, a man in his early 20’s, who was treated for minor injuries from shattered glass.
"It's a pretty tragic situation here," said Forest County Supervisor Tom Vollmar, who lives just outside Crandon, where the shootings occurred.
The State Patrol and Crandon Fire Department detoured a steady stream of traffic from two blocks of U.S. Highway 8 in the downtown area. Some residents stood in nearby front yards in the community where the fall temperatures soared into the 80s.
WJFW quotes a witness who said gun fire broke out around 3 a.m. at a Crandon home near the intersection of Hazeldell and Washington streets.
The witness said 10 area youth between the ages of 17 and 20 were at the party at the time.
The victims included Crandon High School students, recent graduates and the ex-girlfriend of the suspect, said Karly Johnson, 16.
She said she knew the suspect and he 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."
Jenna Bradley, 16, said she was told about 10 people were at a party at the ex-girlfriend's apartment at the time of the shooting. She said she was shocked.
"It's Crandon. Nothing happens in Crandon, ever," she said.
Justin Tokarczyk, 17, said he was angry that someone in law enforcement was involved.
"You figured he would be here for safety," Tokarczyk said. "I don't know how anybody could think about doing that."
Crandon Mayor Gary Bradley declined comment on the status of the investigation.
"We are going to get together and be strong," he said. "We are a strong community. We always have been. This is agonizing but we will prevail."
The northeast Wisconsin city of about 2,000 people is about 225 miles north of Milwaukee. It's in an area known for logging, and fishing, hunting and snowmobiling.
God I hate the media. They make it sound like the kids in the house were partiers/trouble kids but they were all at the house because they did NOT party. They didnt want to go out with everyone else and get drunk. These were just not that sort of kids. /sigh
This is terrible. I wish it weren’t true. I pray for her and for all of us.
I wasn't aware that mayors had such unconstitutional powers.
Stick a sock in it mayor, you worthless P.O.S.!
Just heard on FoxNews that one of the people in the apartment was the deputy`s ex-girlfriend. The Sheriff is supposed to make a statement in about 20 more minutes.
I’m sorry......
God I hate the media. They make it sound like the kids in the house were partiers/trouble kids but they were all at the house because they did NOT party. They didnt want to go out with everyone else and get drunk. These were just not that sort of kids.
Ohh. That is sad. When good kids make a good decision and still are harmed. Deeply troubling.
Press conference in 10 minutes on fox. Will see what else they have to say.
Just got a call from Mom in Florida that a LEO in Northern WI had shot up a bunch of young people and that the Mayor declared a “gag order” on the city of Crandon.
WTF!?
City on lockdown, no details, no description of the perp since 3:00 AM in the fricking morning.
Pretty amazing how the LEO and local government covers their own behind!
Looking for more info......
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