Seven people were shot around 11:00 a.m. Sunday morning at a day spa in the Milwaukee suburb of Brookfield. The shooter, Radcliffe Franklin Haughton, a 45-year-old man from Brown Deer, Wis., was found dead at the scene.
Three of the seven victims died on the scene, and the remaining four have been hospitalized in non-critical condition, according to Brookfield Police Chief Daniel Tushaus.
While the shooting occurred around 11:00 a.m., authorities believed Haughton was on the run for several hours. Their investigation was stalled during this time after officials discovered an improvised explosive device on the scene. Police quickly located Haughton’s body after the bomb squad had deemed the building safe to enter.
His exact motives are still unknown, but police suspect Haughton was targeting his estranged wife, a hairdresser at the spa. Mrs. Haughton had won a temporary restraining order from the Milwaukee County Circuit Court against her husband Oct. 18.
Evan Schmitz, a senior at a Brookfield High School, said the event has shocked the usually safe Milwaukee suburb.
“I have always felt safe the ‘Brookfield Bubble,’ you think that nothing can go wrong in an affluent community,” Schmitz said in an email. “The bubble has been burst though. It really makes a person think twice about how safe they really are.”
Sunday’s tragedy brought back painful memories from seven years ago, when seven people were shot and killed at a Sheraton hotel only one mile away from the Avana Salon & Spa.
“You think there is no way it could ever happen again, but then it does,” Schmitz said. “It’s terrifying.”
Gov. Scott Walker expressed his condolences for the victims of the shooting in a statement.
“Senseless acts of violence leave us with heavy hearts and many questions,” Walker said Sunday. “Our state will stand with the victims and their families.”
