Gunman Killed Himself, Wisconsin Officials Say: Gunman Killed Himself, Wisconsin Officials Say

Oct 10, 07:55 AM

Current Headlines: By Megan Twohey, Chicago Tribune

Oct. 10--CRANDON, Wis. -- Growing up in Wisconsin's northern forests, Tyler Peterson loved to hunt and fish. As a teenager, he was not a loner or an outsider, and he dreamed of becoming a law-enforcement officer, friends and family said.

The 20-year-old had a longtime girlfriend, Jordanne Murray. He had a sense of humor, according to a friend whom he once invited to prom. After high school, he realized his goal and became a part-time officer with the Crandon Police Department and a full-time deputy with the Forest County Sheriff's Office.

But this life, by all accounts a normal one, came to a gruesome end Sunday when Peterson shot and killed Murray and five other young people. Hours later, Peterson, on the run from the very officers with whom he worked, put a handgun to his head and shot three times, officials disclosed Tuesday.

Cornered at a cabin in the woods, Peterson was shot in the arm by police Sunday afternoon. Then he took his life, state Atty Gen. J.B Van Hollen told a news conference.

With other shootings of this kind, friends and family had seen signs that the killers were capable of such violence.

With Peterson, friends said, that was not the case.

"He was just your normal, average guy," said Andrea Walentowski, a longtime friend who had planned to go to prom with Peterson before he decided to go with Murray. But Peterson, she said, had a tendency to get upset over little things in high school. Friends would snap back, "Tyler, cut it out!"

Peterson and Murray broke up last month after dating for four years, but had planned to go hunting Sunday, Walentowski said. But Murray told her friend that things with Peterson were not the same.

"She said, he talked different, seemed different," she said.

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mtwohey@tribune.com

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