AN 18-YEAR-OLD man opened fire with a high-powered rifle outside of a high school prom in northern Wisconsin, wounding two students before a police officer who was in the parking lot fatally shot him.
Investigators did not say whether they believe the two students were specifically targeted or discuss a possible motive for the shooting outside Antigo High School late on Saturday. But a school administrator said it appeared that the gunman — identified by police as Jakob E Wagner — intended to go into the dance and start shooting randomly.
The two prom-goers who were wounded were shot as they exited the building, according to Eric Roller, the chief of police in Antigo, a community of about 8,000 people roughly 150 miles north of Milwaukee.
“Officers were in the parking lot patrolling the activities and heard the shots and an officer immediately fired upon the shooter, stopping the threat,” Roller said. He said the gunman was then taken into custody. Wagner died at a hospital.
In a statement, the Unified School District of Antigo said Wagner approached the school with a high-powered rifle and a large ammunition clip. The district said the “quick actions” taken by police and district staff to secure the building “prevented what might have otherwise been a disaster of unimaginable proportions.”
Interim district administrator Donald B Childs told The Associated Press that it appears Wagner intended to go into the building and shoot at people at the dance.
Friends expressed shock that Wagner was the suspect.
“For him to do that, something just isn’t right. He was a good kid,” said Dakotta Mills, who said he had known Wagner since sixth grade and considered him a “foster brother.”
Wagner was interested in guns and wanted to become a hunter, Mills said, but he wasn’t sure Wagner could afford a gun. He said Mills was raised by his mother and grandparents and was still living at home.
The Wasau Daily Herald quotes a former classmate of Wagner’s as saying that he
“Ever since we were younger, he was one of the kids you kind of watched out for,” Emily Fisher said.
“If someone was going to shoot the school, we thought it was going to be him.”
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