Brookfield, Wisconsin – Three people were killed in a shooting rampage late Sunday morning at a spa near the Brookfield Square Mall.

Four others were shot. Waukesha County authorities confirmed late Sunday afternoon that the suspected shooter, Radcliffe F. Haughton, 45, of Brown Deer, was found dead inside the spa.

The multiple shooting occurred about 11 a.m. at the Azana Salon & Spa on N. Moorland Road, just south of Blue Mound Road and across the street from Brookfield Square.

Police said at a 3:30 p.m. press conference that they had still not cleared the entire building, and that their investigation of the building was hampered by what they believe to be an improvised explosive device. The Milwaukee bomb squad had been called to the scene.

Victims were taken to Froedtert Hospital, which is on lockdown. “Critically injured patients will only be accepted with a police escort,” the hospital’s website says. “Preliminary information is that the lockdown is a precautionary measure.”

The chaotic incident sent people scrambling to flee from the spa, including one woman who ran, screaming, into traffic on Moorland Road.

“She ran right out into the street was pounding on cars,” said David Gosh of West Allis, who saw the woman running into the busy street as he returned from duck hunting earlier Sunday with his father, John, and a friend, Ben Luedke.

Gosh said that moments later, a man with a handgun ran out and appeared to be chasing the girl.

Just then, Gosh said, police began streaming to the scene, and the gunman, seeing them, ran back into the building – or perhaps into the woods behind the building, where Westmoor Country Club is located.

“He was the shooter,” Gosh said. “He was looking for an escape route.”

Gosh and his father were fairly certain he returned to the building because they thought they saw him appear at an upstairs window and pull a shade down.

John Gosh said he then saw two women come out of the building who had been shot. Both were bloody, he said; one appeared to be shot in the leg and the other appeared to have been shot in the back.

Moorland Road was closed between I-94 and W. Blue Mound Road. Brookfield Square Mall was shut down.

More than a dozen emergency vehicles were standing by in the mall parking lot, located just outside Boston Store on the north end of the mall. Fire and emergency officials said they had not been told what to expect yet. 

“We’re waiting for the command center to tell us what to do,” one emergency worker said.

Jurisdictions assisting in the effort included Wauwatosa, Town of Lisbon, Waukesha, Hales Corners, West Allis, Elm Grove, Town of Waukesha, Sussex and Menomonee Falls.

Police officers were patrolling the sidewalk on the east side of the mall with automatic weapons. They were attempting to move people and vehicles from a parking area in Brookfield Square that is located directly across the street from the spa. Police said the area was not safe and ordered bystanders and members of the media to leave. However, a number of parked cars remained in the area police had hoped to seal off.

Several hours after the shooting, police in dark clothing, wearing helmets and bullet-proof vests could be seen walking around the perimeter of the spa as well as the east parking outside of Brookfield Square. Earlier, they were searching cars in the parking lot, as well as outlot buildings located across the street from the spa. Closer to the spa, the Milwaukee County bomb squad vehicle was parked near the north side entrance to the spa.

Leonard Peace, spokesman for the FBI’s Milwaukee office, said FBI’s SWAT Team, hostage negotiators, victim specialists and command staff have all deployed to scene in support of Brookfield Police. Peace said it does not appear to be a federal case and for now the FBI is in a support role.

Special Agent Robert Schmidt, spokesman for the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said about 10 agents had been sent to the scene, in a support role. 

The Azana Spa & Salon is a two-story building on the east side of Moorland Road. A reception desk is directly inside the entrance of the building. To the left are hairdressing stations; a waiting area for customers is to the right. Pedicure stations are behind the reception desk and a large, curving staircase leads up to a second floor that is dimly lighted with multiple rooms for spa treatments and massages.

‘Screaming, yelling’

A bystander in the east parking lot of Brookfield Square, identified as Christopher Pfeiffer, 47, of Brookfield, said he was coming from church at Spring Creek church in Pewaukee when he pulled into the Barnes & Noble bookstore and saw a young girl running in the aisles of the parking lot. It’s not known if it was the same woman as Gosh saw.

“She was screaming, yelling, crying hysterical. She was pleading for help,” said Pfeiffer said. “She kept saying, ‘My mother was shot.’ And she mentioned that there was a gunman. She ran into the bookstore and I followed her. But I watched her from afar.”

Then he said law enforcement descended on Azana. The man said the young woman was barefoot; he assumed she was a patron at the spa. 

Another man, Paul Moll, 64, of Milwaukee, was having lunch at the Red Robin Restaurant and said he just saw police car descend on the scene. He said he noticed someone was wheeled out of the spa building in a chair. He said he heard there was an active shooter inside. 

Just after noon, a Flight for Life helicopter could be seen at Brookfield Square. Police and fire units from New Berlin, Waukesha, Town of Lisbon and others were on the scene.

The shooting scene is less than a mile from the Sheraton Hotel near I-94. On March 12, 2005, seven people were killed and four wounded when Terry Michael Ratzmann opened fire at a Living Church of God service at the hotel. Ratzmann, a 44-year-old computer technician, then committed suicide.

Jim Reedy was heading to Brookfield Square to buy a book at Barnes and Noble when he saw squad cars, flashing lights and Moorland Road blocked off. He suspected something was wrong while driving from Elm Grove and saw four Elm Grove squad cars shoot past.

“I come out here quite a bit. This is pretty much life in the slow lane, people just going about their business,” said Reedy, of Wauwatosa. “Shootings are always tragic, that goes without saying.”

Outside Bravo Cucina Italiana restaurant, waiters in white shirts and black aprons stood at the door facing toward the crime scene ushering in diners and telling people the restaurant remained open. Folks finishing Sunday brunch walked out into the sunshine carrying plastic bags filled with leftovers and stopped to look at the emergency vehicles before continuing to their cars.

Shoppers carrying shopping bags walked up to a Muskego police officer parked next to yellow crime scene tape and asked how they could get their cars on the other side of the tape. Individuals were being allowed in to remove their vehicles as the mall closed down.

Curtis Grupe showed up to work his 1-5 p.m. shift at a shoe store in the mall and stood on the sidewalk outside wondering if he’d get to work on time when he learned the mall had closed.

“I was coming down the road and saw all the helicopters and thought, what’s going on?” said Grupe. who recently moved from Minnesota.

“It’s kind of scary, definitely. I just moved to Milwaukee and I knew it was a tougher town,” said Grupe.

Jenny Remshak, 22, of West Allis, was planning to shop at Boston Store. As she arrived by car, she saw a woman crawling out of the front door of the spa. 

She said the woman crawled to the north of the building, where police were waiting.

“They scooped her up and put her in a cop car,” Remshak said. “They were holding her and she was holding her arms together.”

Remshak said it appeared the woman was wounded. The woman was later placed on a stretcher and was taken to a hospital.

Joe Coan, the general manager of Westmoor County Club, located just south of the spa, said an estimated 100 people remained at the club. He said police had ordered that they stay inside and not be able to leave until the all-clear sign is given.”Fortunately, everybody is being very cooperative,” he said.

 

Journal Sentinel reporters Georgia Pabst, Don Walker, John Fauber, Meg Jones, Paul Gores, Ellen Gabler, Rick Romell, Jim Nelson, John Diedrich and Bill Glauber contributed to this report.

Source:  Journal Sentinel

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