By Judy Keen
USA TODAY
CRANDON, Wis. — Tyler Peterson, an off-duty sheriff’s deputy who killed six people after arguing with an ex-girlfriend, apparently shot and killed himself, Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen said Tuesday.
Van Hollen said Peterson, 20, died of a gunshot to the head from close range hours after Sunday’s rampage. Two shots from a pistol were fired under his chin and a third, fatal shot was to the side of his head.
Van Hollen had said Monday that he wasn’t sure whether Peterson committed suicide or was killed by officers.
Residents of this close-knit community are bracing for funerals as classes resume today for the first time since the killings. Most of the dead were students or recent graduates of Crandon High School.
Van Hollen said Peterson argued with Jordanne Murray in her apartment early Sunday, accusing her of having a relationship with someone else. After she demanded that he leave, he returned with an AR-15 rifle.
“He didn’t speak. He simply opened fire,” Van Hollen said. One victim was in a closet, apparently trying to hide, he said.
After the shooting, Peterson drove around, then went to friends’ home in Argonne, Van Hollen said. Peterson left to meet with relatives, then returned. Soon after, the house was surrounded by law enforcement.
People here are struggling to absorb the enormity of the tragedy. Mariah Walentowski, 13, and Austin Sheldon, 12, put a sign that said, “Our hearts go out to you” on the window of a shop, Flowers from the Heart. It was surrounded by hearts for each of the dead, including one for “Tyler P.”
“I’m trying to keep myself busy,” said Walentowski, a close friend of the youngest victim, Lindsey Stahl, 14. “I don’t like to think about it all,” she said. “It makes me cry.”
Sheldon said the victims’ lives were “like a book. It starts, then something happens, like the pages get ripped out.”
Kacy Ison and Ethel Gnacinski said it was hard to focus on selling ads for the weekly newspaper, The Forest Republican. “The only thing that helps me is just talking,” Ison said. “I’m waiting for somebody to tell me --"
“That it’s all a dream,” Gnacinski said.
They said they feel newly wary in this town of 1,961, where people leave their cars running while they dash into the grocery store. “Everything you thought you knew about this place is upside down,” Ison said.
At Denny’s Hair Care, Dennis Schuenemann cut Steve Sheldon’s hair. “I don’t know how to fix this,” said Sheldon, a casino manager. “Every time you think about it, it’s just goose bumps.” Schuenemann said it’s “time for the community to come together. It’s a time to heal.”
He paused, then added, “After the funerals, then there will be healing.”
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