NEWS

Everest Metro officer, 3 others dead in shooting

Arielle Hines, Laura Schulte, Nora G. Hertel, Jonathan Anderson, and Robert Mentzer

USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin

ROTHSCHILD - An Everest Metro police officer and three others are dead following a shooting spree Wednesday afternoon.

The officer is believed to be the first in Wisconsin killed in the line of duty this year.

Everest Metro Police Chief Wally Sparks confirmed the deaths at a press conference shortly after 8 p.m. Wednesday. The shooter is in police custody, Sparks said. He declined to release names of those involved pending notification of family members.

The shootings began as part of a "domestic situation," according to a press release from the Rothschild Police Department. The first report of a disturbance came at 12:27 p.m. when Rothschild officers were called to the Marathon Savings Bank at 1133 E. Grand Ave. Officers found two people shot there, and the suspect gone.

Everest Metro Police Chief Wally Sparks speaks to news media about shootings Wednesday that killed four, including a member of his department. At left, state Department of Justice Deputy Administrator Jason Smith looks on.

Wausau Police Capt. Todd Baeten said more shots were reported around 1:10 p.m. from the law firm Tlusty, Kennedy and Dirks in Schofield. A third call came at 1:30 p.m. from the Aspen Street Apartments complex in Weston, where the shooting suspect stayed for the remainder of the afternoon. Baeten said officers communicated with him from where he was inside the complex.

It is unclear at what point and location the officer was shot.

Shortly before 2:30 p.m., SWAT teams entered an apartment building at Aspen Street and Ross Avenue, according to a reporter at the scene. Soon after, a resident there saw police ushering people, including children, out of the building. A USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin reporter saw SWAT team members and two bomb robots at the scene.

Susan Thompson, a resident of the apartment building, said 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, has a 2-year-old daughter in the apartment, she told reporters at the scene. Officers later came to the door of her apartment and helped her and her daughter outside, she said. She was one of dozens of people taken from the evacuated building. Displaced residents stayed in the Weston Municipal Center, where the Red Cross provided services while they were out of their homes.

At roughly 4:55 p.m., a USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin reporter at the scene heard numerous gunshots near the apartments, and within 15 minutes an ambulance had sped away from the scene with its lights flashing and siren sounding, and police began to leave. The standoff had ended.

The Wisconsin Department of Justice is in charge of the ongoing investigation.More than 100 law enforcement officers from the region responded to the three different crime scenes, said Jason Smith, deputy administrator of the Division of Criminal Investigation.

"These events affect more than just the people involved. They really affect entire communities," Smith said.

The Everest Metro officer was the first officer killed in the line of duty in Wisconsin this year, said Jim Palmer, executive director of the Wisconsin Professional Police Association. He was the seventh police officer this year to be killed in the line of duty in the U.S.

“First and foremost, our hearts go out to the families of four individuals that suffered tragic losses today,” Palmer said. “For law enforcement officers and their families, today represents their worst nightmares and it’s hard to put into words the broad impact that something like this has on the community."

Police stand watch outside the site of a standoff Wednesday afternoon at an apartment complex on the corner of Aspen Street and Ross Avenue in Weston. Police say a man shot a police officer and at least two others.

The incident triggered lockdowns at all schools in the D.C. Everest School District, as well as at Aspirus Wausau Hospital and North Central Health Care in Wausau. Police said schools were not in danger and the steps were taken as a precaution to ensure the safety of students. Students at Weston's IDEA charter school and Weston Elementary School were taken under police security to Greenheck Fieldhouse for parents to pick them up.

"Many different families have suffered tragedies as a result of the incidents of today," said Weston Village Administrator Daniel Guild. "We're a small community. We're pretty tight-knit here in central Wisconsin. ... I hope that people will lean on each other, and pray for each other and look for ways to comfort each other as people try to move past this incident, and the fear and the impacts that it's having on people's lives."

Officials did not answer any questions from the media on Wednesday night, but said they would provide more details Thursday.

USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin reporters Arielle Hines, Laura Schulte, Nora G. Hertel and Jonathan Anderson contributed.