BROOKFIELD, Wis. — A man police suspected of killing three and wounding four by opening fire at a tranquil day spa was found dead Sunday afternoon following a six-hour manhunt that locked down a shopping center, country club and hospital in suburban Milwaukee.
Authorities said they believed the shooting was related to a domestic dispute. The man they identified as the suspect, Radcliffe Franklin Haughton, 45, of Brown Deer, had a restraining order against him.
Brookfield Police Chief Dan Tushaus said Haughton died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound and was found in the spa. Authorities initially believed Haughton had fled and spent much of Sunday looking for him.
The shooting happened about 11 a.m. at the Azana Day Spa, a two-story, 9,000-square-foot building across from a major shopping mall in Brookfield, a middle-to-upper class community west of Milwaukee. Hours later, a bomb squad descended on the building, and Tushaus said an improvised explosive device had been found inside. It was not clear whether it remained a threat.
Haughton’s father, Radcliffe Haughton, Sr., spoke to a television station and The Associated Press shortly before police announced his son’s death.
In telephone interviews from Florida, he said he had last spoken to his son a few days ago, but didn’t have any indication anything was wrong. He begged his son to turn himself in.
After learning of his son’s death, he said, “This is very sad.”
Police released little about Haughton other than a physical description and a photo.
Online court records showed a temporary restraining order was issued against him Oct. 8 in Milwaukee County Circuit Court because of a domestic abuse complaint. Haughton appeared in court Thursday, when a no-contact order was issued, and he was told to turn all his weapons over to the sheriff’s department.
It was not clear who sought the restraining order, but his father said he was married.
A sea of ambulances and police vehicles collected at the scene shortly after the shooting. A witness, David Gosh of nearby West Allis, told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel he was returning from duck hunting with his father and a friend when he saw a woman emerge from the spa, screaming, as she ran into traffic. The area is near an interstate and a busy commercial road.
“She ran right out into the street was pounding on cars,” Gosh told the newspaper. Moments later, a man with a handgun ran out. He appeared to be chasing the woman but then went back inside, Gosh said.
The mall, a country club adjacent to the spa and the hospital where survivors were taken were among the buildings locked down as police searched for Haughton. At the hospital, staff members were escorted inside and critically injured patients were accepted with a police escort.
Officers were stationed at all main entrances.
People inside the mall waited patiently for updates during the lockdown.
Gina Kralik, a bartender at Red Robin Gourmet Burgers in the mall, said people had been allowed to leave at one point but then police had decided not to let anyone come or go from the mall.
“We’re just sitting watching the news and also trying to find out what’s going on,” she said about 3 p.m.
It was the second mass shooting in Wisconsin this year. Wade Michael Page, a 40-year-old Army veteran and white supremacist, killed six people and injured three others before fatally shooting himself Aug. 5 at a Sikh temple south of Milwaukee.
The shooting at the mall took place less than a mile from where seven people were killed and four wounded on March 12, 2005, when a gunman opened fire at a Living Church of God service held at a hotel.
Associated Press writer Steve Karnowski in Minneapolis contributed to this report.
Not another one! It is not the normal people with guns, but the would-be snipers that cause the problems.
What does one thing have to do with another? Seriously.
Many people have strong feelings about particular issues, but most will not resort to violence to make their point. Mentally unhinged people will do just that.
Considering the politically motivated violence, and holding on to the right to own guns has been more of a right wing issue, I do not why you want to make this connection. Consider the anti-abortionists who have targeted and murdered doctors who perform abortions, or blew up abortion clinics.
In this particular instance, it was a domestic situation that spilled over into the public venue. A man who was to have surrendered his guns is the one who went on this rampage, shooting people where his wife worked and later, himself. The problem with murder-suicides is that they go in the wrong order.
It is pretty offensive to refer to the Sikh temple shooter as an Army veteran. He was chaptered out and did not serve honorably.
I find it interesting that it’s valid to talk about voter fraud when there are absolutely no real examples of voter fraud, and yet after a steady stream of mass shootings we still absolutely refuse to talk about guns.
Yeah, love that guilty by association stuff. You sound like a true American when you spew garbage like that….