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.
Let’s hope. I forget which one but I was reading that one of our neighbors across the pond went this route. Scary.
Could be. Most cops are always armed, on or off duty, but that might not be true of a young dude going to a party of his peers. OTOH, I'd think it would be. Especially if, as reported, he was dating the ex of another officer, who he probably knew was wrapped a little too tight, even if, as seems likely, he didn't know just how tight.
All in all, a smell of a hess.
Take his badge, Jim.
totally wrong guess-timate by me
BUT
maybe tomorrow we find some drug involvement
Yep, I think it was England, IIRC right now... (Kinda tired here... LOL). No guns allowed even for the police. VERY scary if you ask me...
I don't buy it for a minute; my bet is it was just posturing. What do you bet his vote was on The Arms Control and Disarmament Act (PL 87-297) passed by voice vote in 1961?
Did you miss the /s> ?
Wow! You picked up on that one. The Act was the first eye opener on what really is going on regarding the UN/Socialist takeover of our Republic. And Humphrey did have his hands in it. It’s still being kicked around IIRC.
“”Yep, I think it was England, IIRC right now... (Kinda tired here... LOL). No guns allowed even for the police. VERY scary if you ask me...””
Nah I live here. It’s not scary at all. We don’t have the gun crime rate and gun murder rate that America has (thankfully). Brits have never known the average policeman on the street to have guns so what you’ve never had you never miss.
I’m perfectly happy with the status quo. I’ve never encountered anybody with a gun and I don’t know anybody who has encountered anybody with a gun.
It’s just not a big problem here. Sure, gun murders do happen but it’s an infinately small ratio compared to the U.S.A.
The average copper on the street, unless in certain areas, have no need to carry guns in England.
We do have SWAT like teams and other branches of the police that carry guns though but not your average bobby.
You think policeman not carrying guns in England is scary? Fair enough. Conversely I think the gun murder rate in the U.S.A is scary. Incidents like this latest one are all too common in America. Very very scary.
Honestly, it’s NOT as common as it would seem. You have to consider the numbers... The population of the entire United States is enormously larger than that of England. Also, IIRC aren’t your knife murder rates rather high now? I remember the legislature considering banning knives in England, much to the chagrin of butchers and chefs...
England also does not have some of the same social problems that we deal with in the U.S.. Granted, there are some immigrants, but it’s not like what we deal with here in the U.S. coming into the country from Mexico (i.e. Drug dealers and gang members). Also, we deal with gang violence in our cities and it’s almost WORSE in those cities that HAVE gun control laws... (i.e. Chicago, Denver, etc...). I never heard a gun shot on a street until I lived in West Denver — and then it was almost nightly... (I lived in a low-income, mostly Mexican area of the city that had HUGE problems with illegal immigration, drugs, crime, and gangs...). I NEVER encountered any of that outside some parts of the cities I lived near.
The media makes it sound like these things happen ALL the time — which it doesn’t. You also have to consider how many law-abiding citizens own guns in our country that NEVER make the news, or are able to protect themselves from those who mean to do them harm (Those stories almost NEVER make the news and happen a LOT more than things like the one today...).
Anyway... I’m glad to know you at least have S.W.A.T. teams when needed — especially in light of the terrorist events there... I just worry that someday you all might come across a situation where a S.W.A.T. might be too late, and an armed bobby could’ve prevented a massacre...
Thank you for updating the Original post. :)
Right. We need to look especially hard at 20 year olds with no prior military experience. Most 20 year olds I know are not emotionally mature enough to handle domestic dispute situations, especially when it involves them personally.
Wunnerful! Okay on Nigeria, I’ll need your account number and password.
SSRI’s and/or anabolic steroids?
Coroner’s report might be interesting.
If you'd like two articles that give you a feel for how long liberty has been under attack try these:
Has it been posted yet, I haven’t seen it, whether this LEO perp was using an officially issued firearm or one of his own?
That will I’m sure change legal issues as they unfold.
Officials are very tight lipped right now. I sense some major butt covering going on right now.
Expect new developments regarding this story. All is not as it seems.
You have yet to make an intelligent, insightful or sane comment on this forum. You are batting .000.
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