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Off-duty deputy kills six in Wisconsin

The man shot students and recent graduates, authorities say, before he was shot and killed.

CRANDON, Wis. - An off-duty sheriff's deputy went on a shooting rampage early Sunday at a home where seven young people had gathered for pizza and movies, killing six and critically injuring the other before authorities fatally shot him, officials said.

The gunman, Tyler Peterson, was 20 years old and worked full time as a Forest County deputy sheriff and part time as a Crandon police officer, said police Chief John Dennee.

Peterson was not working at the time of the shooting, Sheriff Keith Van Cleve said.

Gary Bradley, mayor of the city of about 2,000, said Sunday that a sniper killed Peterson, but Van Cleve would not confirm that officers shot him.

The circumstances of the shooting were hazy Sunday, and it wasn't immediately clear what the gunman's motive was, but the mother of a 14-year-old victim said the gunman may have been a jealous boyfriend.

Three of the victims were Crandon High School students, said school superintendent Richard Peters, and the other three had graduated within the past three years.

"There is probably nobody in Crandon who is not affected by this," Peters said, adding that students would be especially affected. "They are going to wake up in shock and disbelief and a lot of pain."

Peters did not know whether Peterson had also graduated from the 300-student high school. But Crandon resident Karly Johnson, 16, said the gunman graduated with her brother and had helped her in a tech education class.

"He was nice," she said. "He was an average guy. Normal. You wouldn't think he could do that."

One of the dead was 14-year-old Lindsey Stahl, said her mother, Jenny Stahl, 39.

"I'm waiting for somebody to wake me up right now. This is a bad, bad dream," the weeping mother said. "All I heard it was a jealous boyfriend and he went berserk. He took them all out."

A second victim was Bradley Schultz, 20, a student at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, said his aunt, Sharon Pisarek.

[Last modified October 8, 2007, 00:32:03]