In the morning hours of Sunday morning, 3:00 a.m. to be specific, a 20-year-old Forest County deputy and part-time Crandon police officer by the name of Tyler Peterson went on a shooting rampage in the small town of Crandon, WI. Details are still unclear because the only survivor is in serious condition at St. Joseph’s hospital. At this time, it is known that Peterson showed up at his ex-girlfriend Jordan Murray’s house at 3 a.m., at which point he got into an argument with someone and left. Shortly afterward he forced his way back into the house and fired 30 shots from a SWAT team assault rifle called a R15. Six people were tragically killed in the shooting, and another was seriously wounded. Among the victims was three Crandon High School seniors, two 2005 Crandon High graduates, a student at UW-Milwaukee, and a 14-year-old girl. The only survivor is a 21-year-old man named Charlie Neitzel. The incident ended in a small town about six miles north of Crandon, where Peterso
n was killed in a shootout with the Crandon SWAT team. The rest, including the exact motive of the shooting, is still unclear.
Peterson’s parents were both questioned to try and gain insight on the cause of the rampage, but they were equally as baffled. “Like us, many of you are asking why and looking for answers," the Peterson's (Tyler Peterson parents) statement said. "There is nothing that happened before or after yesterday's events that has given any insight into why. We may never receive the answers we all seek. Like those close to Tyler, we are in shock and disbelief he would so such terrible things. This was not the Tyler we knew and loved." (Taken from the article “Parents feel ‘guilt and shame’ for young deputy's rampage”) The obvious question that I ask is: what could possibly be the cause that would make a seemingly “normal” person commit such a horrendous crime?
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3 comments:
The Crandon incident is extremely sad considering so many people lost their lives at such young ages. Channel 27 news said that Peterson's rampage was caused by jealousy he had regarding his ex-girlfriend. What is hard for me to comprehend is the fact that he could have so much jealousy to commit such a terrible crime. If jealousy caused the shootings, than people around Peterson, like his family had to have noticed odd behavior leading up to the crime. As Tyler describes, his family feels terrible and in no way should they feel guilt for their son's crime. However, maybe a lesson can be learned from this. If for any reason someone notices the slightest change in someone, than they should take the time to talk with a person before it leads to something like the Crandon shooting.
This is obviously a horrendous event and the imminent debate over why Peterson committed these acts will not help the situation, but the answer to the debate may help to ease the minds of the families that were affected by this tragedy. Was this man a jealous boy friend or ex-boy friend, whichever it may be? Did he have some sort of underlying mental issues that culminated in this outrage? A better question might be why no one who knew him noticed any of these signs. It is very unlikely that Peterson was perfectly fine and went on a rampage out of the blue. How was he able to be employed by the sheriff’s department as well as the city police without a mental evaluation? These things must have taken place before Peterson was issued this AR-15 that he used as the murder weapon. This is a situation with too few facts and too many deaths to know what actually transpired in the mind of Peterson and those whom he murdered. What we do know is that many lives were taken in this senseless act and that no justice can be reached, considering Peterson himself was a victim of this incident as well.
These cases should never happen. A jealous boyfriend killed six people because he wanted his girlfriend back? That is horrific and devastating to the families. As Bo said, that amount of jealousy should have been recognized as harmful and a simple conversation could have changed the whole scene. Also, working in the sheriff's department, another sheriff should have recognized his behavior as out of the ordinary. However, no one thought anything was different and that the shooting rampage was purely spontaneous. They may never know the motive but incidents like this may lead to officers reevaluating their department from time to time.
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