6 Dead in Shooting at Home in Wisconsin

Jun 10, 07:05 PM

Current Headlines: A shooting inside a home killed six people, and a toddler was found in a nearby vehicle with a gunshot to the chest, the police chief said yesterday.

Police found the bodies while investigating a report of shots fired Saturday night in the small southern Wisconsin town, Chief Tim O'Neill said.

The wounded child, a 2-year-old girl, was taken to a hospital in Rockford, Illinois, where she was reported in critical condition late Saturday, hospital officials said. Rockford Memorial Hospital officials said she was flown to the University of Wisconsin Hospital in Madison, where officials did not immediately give her condition yesterday morning.

One of the victims was Vanessa Iverson, who did not live at the house but had been visiting, said her brother, Duane Iverson, who went to the police station.

Police cordoned off a two-block area around the crime scene yesterday morning, wheeling out bodies as neighbors gathered on the sidewalks to watch the investigation on a tree-lined street just two blocks from the police station.

"It's tragic. It's getting worse all the time," said James Brandenburg, 57, who spent several minutes praying outside the house. "If we want to, we can put a stop to this."

The house where the shootings took place is a rental property where people often move in and out, said Pete Brancheau, 59, who lives across the street. He said he heard six shots Saturday night but thought nothing of it because children in the neighborhood play with firecrackers "all the time." About a minute later, he heard about three more shots.

Tina McKinnon, 37, who lives down the street and around the corner, said she saw the family in the neighborhood but also did not know them.

"It was a very quiet house," McKinnon said. "Never had any commotion whatsoever. The children were very pleasant."

Delavan is a bucolic community of 8,000 people about 64 kilometers southwest of Milwaukee. The two-block downtown area has brick-covered streets. The P.T. Barnum Circus, "The Greatest Show on Earth," was founded in Delavan in 1871.

Agencies

(c) 2007 China Daily; North American ed.. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.