Tyler James Peterson

Tyler James Peterson was born on March 6, 1987, in the United States. He graduated from Crandon High School in 2005 and joined law enforcement soon afterward. On September 11, 2006, at the age of 19, Peterson was officially hired as a full-time deputy with the Forest County Sheriff's Department and also served part-time with the Crandon Police Department.

By all accounts, Peterson was a young and relatively new member of the local law enforcement community. He had dated Jordanne Michele Murray, one of the eventual victims, for approximately four years, but the couple had broken up just a month before the shooting in September 2007. The emotional fallout from that breakup, combined with other potential stressors that were never officially documented, likely played a critical role in what would become one of Wisconsin’s most shocking mass shootings.

In the early morning hours of October 7, 2007, around 2:30 a.m. CDT, Tyler James Peterson arrived uninvited at a post–homecoming party being held inside a duplex apartment in Crandon, Wisconsin. The gathering included seven young people, all either current or recent students of Crandon High School. Peterson was off duty at the time. After a verbal altercation broke out inside the apartment, Peterson exited the building, retrieved an AR-15 style rifle from his vehicle, and returned to the apartment.

According to witness and police reports, Peterson forcibly kicked down the door and opened fire. He first killed three individuals in the living room, then moved into the kitchen where he killed another victim. He proceeded to kill a fifth person near a closet, and a sixth person hiding inside it. The last to be shot was 21-year-old Charlie Neitzel, who was in the kitchen and was struck multiple times. Despite being shot three times, Neitzel survived by pretending to be dead. Peterson had shot him, paused, then shot again as Neitzel lay motionless on the floor.

After the attack, Peterson exited the apartment and encountered fellow officer Greg Carter, who was driving toward the scene. Peterson opened fire on Carter’s police vehicle, shattering the windshield and injuring Carter with flying glass. Carter managed to reverse and flee. Peterson then drove away and phoned in false reports to mislead investigators about his whereabouts.

By midday, police tracked Peterson to a friend's cabin in Argonne, approximately seven miles north of Crandon. He held friends hostage there until around 12:30 p.m. before attempting to flee into the nearby woods. Authorities initially believed Peterson was killed by a police sniper, but forensic evidence later confirmed he died by suicide. He had been struck once in the arm by a sniper’s bullet, after which he fatally shot himself three times with his service Glock pistol—twice under the chin and once through the side of his head.

A total of approximately 30 rounds were fired from the AR-15 during the rampage. The crime marked a grim milestone: it was the first mass shooting in the United States involving an AR-15 style rifle, according to a retrospective analysis by Mother Jones. Since then, the AR-15 platform has been used in a rising number of American mass shootings.

The house where the murders occurred was demolished in June 2008. In the aftermath, families of the victims filed a lawsuit against the city, claiming negligence in Peterson’s hiring and training. The lawsuit was ultimately dismissed, and the families were ordered to pay $21,000 in legal fees.

Victims

Fatalities:

• Aaron Smith, 20
• Bradley Schultz, 20
• Jordanne Michele Murray, 18 (Peterson’s ex-girlfriend)
• Katrina McCorkle, 17
• Lianna Thomas, 17
• Lindsey Stahl, 14

Survivor:

• Charlie Neitzel, 21 – survived three gunshot wounds by playing dead; discharged from hospital on October 17, 2007.