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| This photo provided by the Brookfield Police Dept. shows Radcliffe Franklin Haughton, 45, of Brown Deer, Wis. Deputies are searching for Haughton on Sunday, Oct. 21, 2012, who's suspected of wounding multiple people in a shooting at a spa near a suburban Milwaukee shopping mall. |
MILWAUKEE (AP) -- A Wisconsin man terrorized his wife for years, threatening to throw acid on her face, dousing her car with tomato juice and slashing her vehicle's tires before finally going to the spa where she worked, opening fire and killing her and two others.
The
shooting spree stunned the middle- to upper-class Milwaukee suburb
where it happened, but court records show the conflict between Radcliffe
Haughton and his wife had been escalating for years.
The
45-year-old former car salesman ultimately shot seven women at the spa
before turning the gun on himself. Three remained hospitalized Monday.
Haughton,
of Brown Deer, was charged with disorderly conduct last year after
police officers responding to a 911 call saw Haughton point what
appeared to be a gun at his wife, Zina, from a window at their home.
Officers took cover, and a 90-minute standoff ensued.
Brown
Deer police said Monday the standoff ended peacefully, and they were
never able to confirm a gun was involved because Zina Haughton wouldn't
allow them into the couple's home. The charge against Radcliffe Haughton
was dropped when a police officer failed to appear in court.
According
to court records, Zina Haughton told police when she called 911 that
her husband had thrown her clothes and bedding into the yard and poured
tomato juice on her car.
Ernest J. Polk, who
lives across the street from the Haughtons' home, said they were
friendly to him but he saw signs of turmoil.
"There
was always confrontation over there, but I never thought it would come
to this," he said. "... It was mostly verbal. I didn't see anything
physical."
Zina Haughton told police last year
that her husband didn't own any guns, but she was concerned enough
about her safety to get a police escort when she went to the house
earlier this month to pick up a few items.
Zina
Haughton wrote in restraining order request filed Oct. 8 that her
husband had threatened to kill her if she ever left him. He also, at
various times, threatened to throw acid on her face and burn her and her
family with gas.
"His threats terrorize my every waking moment," Zina Haughton wrote.
She
said when she drove to work after picking up items from her home, she
found her husband waiting for her in a car outside the spa. He leaned
out of the vehicle and, in front of her and two co-workers, slashed her
vehicle's tires. He was later arrested.
Radcliffe
Haughton appeared in court Thursday, when a judge issued a four-year
restraining order and told him to turn in all firearms to a county
sheriff. It's not clear whether he turned in any weapons.
He bought the .40-caliber semiautomatic handgun used in the shootings on Saturday, Brown Deer police said in a statement.
People
who buy handguns from gun dealers must wait 48 hours after they have
cleared a background check from the Department of Justice to pick up
their firearm. There is no such waiting period or background check
required in Wisconsin for people who purchase handguns from private
individuals, which police say Radcliffe Haughton did.
Two
Democratic state lawmakers said Monday that they'll re-introduce a bill
designed to ensure that perpetrators of domestic violence comply with
judges' orders to surrender their weapons.
The shooting spree also killed Cary Robuck, a 35-year-old nail technician from Racine, and Maelyn Lind, 38, of Oconomowoc.
Shawn
Scheffler, who had lived with Robuck for six years, described her as a
"bright personality" who loved her part-time job at the spa.
"She
was my world," Scheffler said. "That was the woman I was going to spend
the rest of my life with, and she was taken from me just like that."
Kathy
Sieja, a spokeswoman at the hospital where the survivors were taken,
said one woman was released from the hospital Monday afternoon and the
others were in satisfactory condition.
The
shooting spree that happened about 11 a.m. Sunday triggered chaos in the
commercial area around the spa. Believing Haughton had fled, police
began a massive, six-hour search that locked down a nearby mall, country
club and hospital.
The police chief in
Brookfield, where the spa is located, said later that a fire Haughton
set in the building, the discovery of a propane tank initially believed
to be an improvised explosive device and the layout of the facility,
with many small rooms and locked areas, all slowed officers' search and
delayed the discovery of the gunman's body.
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.
Sunday's shooting
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.
