Posted on 11/06/2004 5:05:55 PM PST by TERMINATTOR
OAK CREEK - A gunman killed his girlfriend and another man and wounded two others in a hotel early Friday, at one point spraying the hallways with bullets in this Milwaukee suburb, police said.
The 34-year-old man, who was holding a hostage when officers arrived, surrendered to police after about 30 minutes of negotiations and was taken into custody, Police Chief Thomas Bauer said. He did not release the man's name.
Bauer said officers were called about 2:30 a.m. to the Comfort Suites, where a man indicated he had killed "some people."
The man, who had fired 30 to 40 rounds, was armed with an automatic weapon and a revolver and wearing a bulletproof vest, Bauer said. A man and a woman were hospitalized in stable condition.
Investigators believe the shooting started after the suspect and his 23-year-old girlfriend, Sandra Wisniewski of Milwaukee, got into a fight, Bauer said.
The second victim, Anton Uebelhoer, 43, of Regensburg, Germany, was an innocent bystander in a room next door who stepped into the hallway after the girlfriend was shot. Bauer said the suspect shot him from about 5 feet away.
"After the suspect shot and killed her, he then went into the hallway where unfortunately people heard the noise, came out of their rooms and one individual was executed," Bauer said.
The man then started firing down two hallways, wounding one man, Bauer said. The woman left her room after hearing the noise but saw the shooter, ran back and closed the door, only to have the suspect shoot her as she stood behind the door, the chief said.
The shooter grabbed another man who was standing in the hall and pulled him into that man's room as a hostage, Bauer said.
He then phoned Milwaukee television station WITI, telling an assignment editor he had killed some people. She kept him on the line while a producer at the station called police.
"He told me he was going to kill the hostage if the cops came in," the assignment editor said on evening news shows on WITI. Her name was given only as Robin.
She said the man told her he was going to give himself up but didn't want to be killed. She asked to talk with the hostage, "and he said, 'OK, hold on,' and then the line went dead," she said.
The hostage was released unharmed when the assailant turned himself in, Bauer said. The hostage, a member of the military, had returned to his Chicago-area home by Friday afternoon.
Hotel guest Robin Martin, 41, of Forestville, said he awoke between 4:30 a.m. and 5 a.m. and opened his door on the third floor to investigate a noise.
"Half a dozen guys in SWAT outfits, automatic weapons and sidearms were in the hall. It scared the hell out of me," Martin said. "One of the men said, 'Sir, shut the door.' I did so immediately."
The suspect and his girlfriend checked in the hotel together. At one point in the night, she had called some family members because she wanted someone to pick her up, Bauer said.
Uebelhoer was in town to prepare for a trade show in Chicago, said Heinz Sommer, chief executive officer of Franklin-based Krones Inc., subsidiary of the German firm that had employed the victim for 13 years.
Uebelhoer had a wife and 5- year-old twins. Sommer called him a "committed and valued" employee.
An Oak Creek officer was patrolling the hotel's parking lot when police started receiving 911 calls about the shootings.
"We had officers there immediately," Bauer said.
Officers went door-to-door in the three-story hotel to make sure no one else was hurt.
Todd Winkler, vice president of operations for the hotel's owners, did not say how many people were in the hotel at the time, although 90 of its 130 rooms were rented.
Police said they planned to search the suspect's Milwaukee home for other weapons and "to make sure there's not another crime scene."
"He has been somewhat cooperative with us," Bauer said.
Remember Wisconsin still hasn't passed CCW yet.
Strange, not a single use of "assault" or any mention of the Republican administration's failure to retain the federal ban on illegal assault weapons.
Sounds like the DNC stopped handing out the free crack and the natives are getting edgy. The free crack for a set of flat michelins and voter registration special has come to it's inevitable conclusion.
I've been conditioned since November 2nd to assume "gunmen" with "hostages" in places like "Wisconsin" meant another Kerry voter unhappy with the election results.....
Ping
My wife took the rest of the week off and stayed at home here in our "compound" for just the reason you mentioned. It's nasty out there. I had an altercation on wednesday morning during a visit to the computer store. I should have known better.
Coward
Thought he was a popo as well, but the news reports said he operated some sort of small business out of his house.
Based on the media's track record talking about guns, I'm betting now that it wasn't a full auto weapon at all.
The idiot police chief doesn't know the difference between a cold blooded murder and an execution?
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