Source says Whitmer, Evers on Wisconsin gunman’s target list

Juneau County Circuit Choose John Roemer is seen on this 2007 photograph. Roemer was discovered killed in his dwelling in New Lisbon, Wis., on Friday. (Tom Loucks/Wisconsin Rapids Tribune by way of AP)

A gunman suspected of fatally taking pictures a retired county choose at a Wisconsin dwelling had an inventory that included Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Senate Minority Chief Mitch McConnell and Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, Whitmer’s workplace and a regulation enforcement supply mentioned Saturday.

Douglas Okay. Uhde, 56, who has not been charged, is suspected of killing retired Juneau County Choose John Roemer at Roemer’s home in New Lisbon on Friday, the Wisconsin Division of Justice mentioned in a information launch Saturday.

Uhde was discovered within the basement of the house with a self-inflicted gunshot wound, following makes an attempt by police to barter with him. Uhde is hospitalized in vital situation, DOJ officers mentioned.

Wisconsin Lawyer Normal Josh Kaul on Friday mentioned the taking pictures gave the impression to be a “focused act” and that the gunman had chosen individuals who had been “a part of the judicial system.”

However investigators imagine the gunman additionally could have deliberate to focus on different authorities officers and located an inventory in his car that contained the names of a number of different distinguished elected leaders, a regulation enforcement official mentioned. The opposite targets on the record, which talked about Roemer, included Evers, McConnell and Whitmer, the official mentioned.

Roemer was discovered zip-tied to a chair in his dwelling and had been fatally shot, the official mentioned. The official couldn’t focus on particulars of the investigation publicly and spoke to The Related Press on situation of anonymity.

Uhde has an intensive felony and jail file courting again no less than 20 years, together with a case when he was sentenced by Roemer to 6 years in jail on weapons expenses. He was launched from his final jail stint in April 2020.

Zach Pohl, Whitmer’s deputy chief of employees, mentioned her workplace was notified that her title appeared “on the Wisconsin gunman’s record.”

“Governor Whitmer has demonstrated repeatedly that she is hard, and she or he is not going to be bullied or intimidated from doing her job and dealing throughout the aisle to get issues completed for the folks of Michigan,” Pohl mentioned.

Whitmer turned the item of protests and criticism after she blamed former President Donald Trump for stoking anger over COVID-19 restrictions and refusing to sentence right-wing extremists.

A trial held earlier this 12 months during which 4 males accused in an alleged kidnapping plot of the Michigan Democrat resulted within the acquittal of two of the lads. The jury couldn’t attain a unanimous verdict for the opposite two.

Roemer, 68, was a “very loving, very encouraging man with an exquisite humorousness who might be dearly missed” by the neighborhood, mentioned Chip Wilke, pastor at St. Paul’s Evangelical Lutheran Church in Mauston, the place Roemer was president of the congregation and evangelism chairman. “He was in my workplace a number of mornings per week.”

Wilke mentioned after he was notified of Roemer’s loss of life Friday the pastor’s thought was “I’m glad we’ve Jesus and we all know the place he’s at.”

Roemer retired from the bench in 2017. He was first elected in 2004 and was reelected in 2010 and 2016. He beforehand had served as an assistant district lawyer for Juneau County and an assistant state public defender. He additionally labored in personal follow and served as a lieutenant colonel for the U.S. Military Reserves.

Investigators mentioned there isn’t a rapid hazard to the general public.

“The knowledge that’s been gathered indicated that it was a focused act and that the focusing on was based mostly on some form of courtroom case or courtroom circumstances,” Kaul mentioned.

The Juneau County Sheriff’s Workplace obtained a name that two pictures had been fired at a house in New Lisbon at 6:30 a.m. Friday, in accordance with the Division of Legal Investigation. The caller had fled the house and made the decision from one other close by home.

Donna Voss, a neighbor, informed The Related Press she heard regulation enforcement on a loudspeaker telling the person to give up and depart the house.

For Voss, the taking pictures got here as a shock in a normally quiet neighborhood the place homes sit alongside farmland and wooded heaps, about 80 miles northwest of Madison.

“It’s unbelievable and actually freaky,” she mentioned.

New Lisbon, which has a inhabitants of about 2,500 folks, is in Juneau County in central Wisconsin.

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Kolpack reported from Fargo, North Dakota. Balsamo reported from Washington, D.C.