MIDDLETON, Wis. -- A shooter opened fire inside a Wisconsin software company Wednesday, wounding three people before responding officers fatally shot the assailant. A separate shooting outside a courtroom in Pennsylvania left four people injured.
In Wisconsin, Middleton Police Chief Chuck Foulke said officers shot the man within 8 minutes of receiving calls about an active shooter at WTS Paradigm. Foulke said the man was armed with a semi-automatic pistol and extra ammunition, and fired at officers before he was shot.
Foulke said three people were seriously injured during the attack, while a fourth person was grazed by a bullet.
The police chief said the motivation behind the attack remained unclear and investigators didn't yet know whether the gunman targeted his victims. He didn't release the suspect's name but said he was an employee of WTS Paradigm and lived in nearby Madison.
Foulke said the investigation was ongoing but noted: "We have reason to believe the suspect was heavily armed with a lot of extra ammunition, a lot of extra magazines."
Judy Lahmers, a business analyst at WTS Paradigm, said she was working at her desk when she heard what sounded "like somebody was dropping boards on the ground, really loud." Lahmers said she ran out of the building and hid behind a car.
She said the building's glass entrance door was shattered.
"I'm not looking back, I'm running as fast as I can. You just wonder, 'Do you hide or do you run?'" she said.
She said she knew one co-worker had been grazed by a bullet but was OK. She didn't have any other information about the shooting but said it was "totally unexpected. We're all software people. We have a good group."
University Hospital in Madison confirmed Wednesday afternoon that it was still treating three victims from the shooting, saying one was in critical condition and two were in serious condition.
In Pennsylvania, Fayette County District Attorney Richard Bower said Wednesday evening that a German Township police officer shot and killed a gunman after he entered the lobby outside a courtroom with a handgun drawn and opened fire, injuring four people. Bower declined to name the gunman, saying only that he was due in court on charges related to a recent domestic violence incident.
Bower said Masontown police officer Sgt. R. Scott Miller first encountered the gunman and was injured when he exchanged gunfire with the shooter. When Miller took cover, Bower said the gunman proceeded to fire shots injuring two men and one woman.
"In this case, as is so often the case, the German Township police officer ran toward the danger, not away. He protected over 30 to 40 people from injury or death," Bower said.
Bower declined to say whether any of the civilian victims were related to the domestic violence allegations. He said the gunman was facing charges of strangulation, aggravated assault, terroristic threats and simple assault. He said there was a protection of abuse order against the gunman in the strangulation case.
A Fayette County 911 center supervisor confirmed that the three civilian victims were taken to Ruby Memorial Hospital in Morgantown, W.Va., for treatment. Amy Johns, public affairs director at the hospital, said late Wednesday that they had received a 47-year-old man, 35-year-old man and 39-year-old woman from the shooting and all were in fair condition.
Masontown Mayor Toni Petrus was at the hospital Wednesday afternoon checking on Miller. She said he was in good condition and was being treated for injuries that weren't life-threatening.
State Police troop commander Lt. Steven C. Dowlin said that even though the shooting happened near the office of District Judge Daniel Shimshock, neither he nor his staff appeared to be the intended target of the shooter.
Information for this article was contributed by Gretchen Ehlke, Amy Forliti, Jeff Baenen, Claudia Lauer and Ron Todt of The Associated Press.
A Section on 09/20/2018