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6 friends killed at party in Crandon (WI) - 1 hurt; hours later, SWAT team kills shooter
Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel ^ | 10/7/07 | RAQUEL RUTLEDGE

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]

6 friends killed at party in Crandon

1 hurt; hours later, SWAT team kills shooter

By RAQUEL RUTLEDGE
rrutledge@journalsentinel.com
Posted: Oct. 7, 2007

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.

Many connections

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.

A homecoming sleepover

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."

Home to visit his mother

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.

A grieving town

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.


TOPICS: Breaking News; Crime/Corruption; News/Current Events; US: Wisconsin
KEYWORDS: banglist; beserkcop; crandon; donutwatch; leo; shooting; tylerpeterson; wisconsin
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To: Calvin Locke

You are not too far off the mark on your last sentence. Affirmative action, pushed and supported by the ACLU and the feds, has had a very negative impact on police depts. I don’t have any statistics, just anecdotal evidence, which isn’t considered evidence.
IQ ratings have zippo to do with whether someone goes nuts or not.


641 posted on 10/10/2007 5:58:16 AM PDT by Scotsman will be Free (11C - Indirect fire, infantry - High angle hell - We will bring you, FIRE)
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To: kenth

I read a quote the other day:”It isn’t the title that makes a man noble, it’s the man that makes the title noble”.


642 posted on 10/10/2007 6:01:05 AM PDT by Scotsman will be Free (11C - Indirect fire, infantry - High angle hell - We will bring you, FIRE)
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To: Milwaukee_Guy
A tragedy compounded by the fact the shooting started at about 2:45 am Sunday and the perp was not confronted by police until 2:00 pm Sunday afternoon.

Yes, I know, I questioned that myself when I read 'the friend's' interview, however you can't lay blame until the 911 tapes are released, & the person "in charge" is revealed.

And now yesterday we leaned that the perp is supposed to have shot himself in the head -three- times. This only happens in Arkansas.

Yep, just posted it myself, & hope the media has lots of questions for AG Van Hollen, or whomever decides to "take' media questions.

643 posted on 10/10/2007 6:04:53 AM PDT by txdoda (Voters to Gov't .......Re: post 9-11 Border Security....... ""The results are Unacceptable."")
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To: NRA2BFree

Yeah, they would continue to complain. You can not reason with unreasonable people.


644 posted on 10/10/2007 6:11:42 AM PDT by Scotsman will be Free (11C - Indirect fire, infantry - High angle hell - We will bring you, FIRE)
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To: txdoda; All

“Authorities plan to release 911 calls recorded during the aftermath of Sunday’s shootings in the next day or two, said Kevin St. John, a state Department of Justice spokesman.

Forest County officials had denied the Journal Sentinel’s request Monday and Tuesday. Witnesses’ accounts of when they called 911 to report Peterson was at the Argonne home, and when he was confronted by law enforcement, have raised questions about how long it took authorities to respond.

A clerk at the Forest County Jail denied a request to view the arrest log, a public record routinely reviewed by the news media.”

http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=672931


645 posted on 10/10/2007 6:14:44 AM PDT by Milwaukee_Guy (Don't hit them between the eyes. Hit them right -in- the eyes!)
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To: Milwaukee_Guy
Great Questions.....(& when I get back from OT, I hope some will be answered...;o)

With a cop identified as the perp, it should be a thorough investigation.

646 posted on 10/10/2007 6:22:33 AM PDT by txdoda (Voters to Gov't .......Re: post 9-11 Border Security....... ""The results are Unacceptable."")
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To: El Gato
The general policy of letting rural sheriffs deputies take their duty weapons home is not really unreasonable for a small department with a lot of territory to cover.

It was not his weapon it was the department weapon. And it should have been secured in their little black goon squad van.

How safe are deputes and police officers in their off duty cars when m13 know there is a full functioning assault weapon in the trunk. No common sense here. Besides that storm trooper stuff, which I consider unnecessary should be restricted to mature, five years are more experience men.

647 posted on 10/10/2007 6:55:28 AM PDT by org.whodat (What's the difference between a Democrat and a republican????)
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To: Milwaukee_Guy
From your link:

Peterson took his own life with a handgun, officials said.

Why did they originally say that the SWAT team killed shooter?

648 posted on 10/10/2007 7:49:45 AM PDT by Ken H
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To: txdoda
the fatal shot entering the right side of his head, Van Hollen said. All three head wounds showed signs the gun was held against the skin.”

The question is, who was holding the gun for the fatal shot.

649 posted on 10/10/2007 10:23:21 AM PDT by org.whodat (What's the difference between a Democrat and a republican????)
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To: Ken H

We’ll, here’s a possiblity. Not that it really matters now.

The SWAT team may have had line of sight on him and his weapon(s).... but couldn’t confirm that he was dead. Maybe looking through some thin drapes or whatever. Tinted glass.

He’s not responding to any commands...so they took a shot.

Sniper confirms he hit the guy...and the guy didn’t move.

Then the police go in.

And it gets reported that SWAT team sniper kills the guy.

Kinda like when the cops shoot the guy in the elevator in the thigh in Silence of the Lambs. The guy was dead. But had a pistol next to his hand.


650 posted on 10/10/2007 10:25:01 AM PDT by Canali
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To: kenth

Said sheriff is a Republican in a dhimm county-they’ve been “gunning” for him since the day he was elected. There’s a lot more to the story than most people know.

My parents live there and my Grandmother(may God rest her soul)was one of the few Republicans there. I’m so glad she infused me with her values as I grew up.


651 posted on 10/10/2007 1:59:59 PM PDT by snuffy smiff
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To: snuffy smiff

“There’s a lot more to the story than most people know.”

Well, don’t keep us waiting...


652 posted on 10/10/2007 2:20:31 PM PDT by starviego
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To: Ken H
Early reports said he was killed by an Oconto county officer. Then there was silence. Then he managed to shoot himself 3 times in the head.
653 posted on 10/10/2007 2:26:45 PM PDT by rhinelanderwi
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To: starviego

Sorry. Until this all plays out that’s about all I can say.
Other than the sheriff has oficially resigned and the deputy(a dhimm) got a slap on the wrist.

So much for being friends with a backstabbing dhimm...


654 posted on 10/10/2007 4:20:27 PM PDT by snuffy smiff
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To: org.whodat

If you had one once of sense you would know how tightly controlled ammo and weapon are around the military. They have adult supervision at all times.
~~
If You have never been in ground combat You don’t know WTF
Your talking about,,,

Ever heard of “fragging” ??...


655 posted on 10/10/2007 7:30:53 PM PDT by 1COUNTER-MORTER-68 (THROWING ANOTHER BULLET-RIDDLED TV IN THE PILE OUT BACK~~~~~)
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To: 1COUNTER-MORTER-68
That statement makes me think you have a lot of first hand knowledge about the phony soldiers.
656 posted on 10/10/2007 7:44:47 PM PDT by org.whodat (What's the difference between a Democrat and a republican????)
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To: El Gato

No they are not too young. But they’ve had more training, and have been instilled with more discipline. They also operate under the close supervision of their NCOs. A small department deputy and/or town cop is much more likley to have to operate on their own. Make a big difference. A larger department would have both more extensive training and would have the green guys, of whatever age, ride along with a more mature training officer, and probably for alonger time.
~~~
Sometimes the LT. and the NCOs and Doc go down,,,

Then you got a 19 year old(with some salt) with a PRC\25

that runs the show(olden days),,,

You are spot~on about the training and the ride~alongs...


657 posted on 10/10/2007 7:56:30 PM PDT by 1COUNTER-MORTER-68 (THROWING ANOTHER BULLET-RIDDLED TV IN THE PILE OUT BACK~~~~~)
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To: org.whodat
'Nam 67-68...IFFV,,,TET'68...8/26 Arty...FWIW... Image and video hosting by TinyPic To Make A Point,,,It Ain't About AGE !!! Got It ?...
658 posted on 10/10/2007 8:08:45 PM PDT by 1COUNTER-MORTER-68 (THROWING ANOTHER BULLET-RIDDLED TV IN THE PILE OUT BACK~~~~~)
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To: 1COUNTER-MORTER-68
Sometimes the LT. and the NCOs and Doc go down,,,

Then you got a 19 year old(with some salt) with a PRC\25

Yep, and then he's already in too much trouble to go making any more, except for the enemy of course.

659 posted on 10/10/2007 8:16:56 PM PDT by El Gato ("The Second Amendment is the RESET button of the United States Constitution." -- Doug McKay)
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To: org.whodat

WTF point are trying to make? I’d like to give you the benefit of the doubt before actually tell you my thoughts.


660 posted on 10/10/2007 8:20:03 PM PDT by jedward (I'm not sure you meant, what I understand...or maybe you did.)
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