Suspected shooter threatened wife

US authorities say three people are dead after a shooting in Wisconsin today.

A MAN police suspected of killing three and wounding four by opening fire at a tranquil day spa was found dead following a six-hour manhunt that locked down a shopping centre, country club and hospital in suburban Milwaukee.

Authorities said they believed the shooting was related to a domestic dispute. The man they identified as the suspect, Radcliffe Franklin Haughton, 45, of Brown Deer, had a restraining order against him. Police say he had a history of domestic violence.

It is believed his estranged wife Zina Haughton works at the spa.

Haughton had slashed his wife's tyres on October 4, Brookfield police said. She sought court protection four days later, and a judge granted a four-year restraining order on Thursday. In a court filing, Haughton said her husband thought she was cheating on him, and threatened to kill her if she ever left him or called the police. She told the court he threatened to burn her and her family with gas.

As part of the order, Haughton was prohibited from owning a firearm.

Police are searching for Radcliffe Franklin Haughton, 45, of Brown Deer, Wisconsin, who is suspected of wounding multiple people in a shooting at a spa near a suburban Milwaukee shopping mall. Picture: Brookfield Police Dept/AP

Brookfield Police Chief Dan Tushaus declined to say whether Haughton, 45, had surrendered any weapons prior to Sunday's salon rampage. Tushaus also said he wasn't immediately aware of a motive.

"I can tell you we're not seeking additional suspects," he said at a news conference on Sunday evening.

"The community can feel safe."

Brookfield Mayor Steve Ponto called the shootings "a senseless act on the part of one person".

Police and swat team members surround the Azana Spa in Brookfield, Wisconsin as deputies continue their search for a gunman who opened fire in the spa, wounding seven people. Picture: Tom Lynn/AP

Tushaus said Haughton died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound and was found in the spa. Authorities initially believed Haughton had fled and spent much of Sunday looking for him. During a six-hour search for the gunman, a nearby mall, a country club adjacent to the spa and the hospital where the survivors were taken were all locked down.

At the hospital, staff members were escorted inside and critically injured patients were accepted with a police escort. Officers were stationed at all main entrances.

The search froze activity in a commercial area in Brookfield, a middle-to-upper class community west of Milwaukee, for much of the day.

Tushaus said three people were killed in the shooting and another four victims were taken to hospital.He said the four survivors were between the ages of 22 and 40. He didn't know if they were employees at the spa or customers, and it wasn't clear if the man's wife was among the victims. A spokeswoman for a local hospital said four people were being treated on Sunday, none were in a critical condition.

A gunman has opened fire at a day spa in Milwaukee, injuring seven people. Picture: todaystmj4.com

The shooting happened about 11am at the Azana Day Spa, a two-storey, 9000-square-foot building across from a major shopping mall in Brookfield. The first officers on the scene found the building filled with smoke from a fire authorities believe was set by Haughton, Tushaus said.

They also found a propane tank they initially thought might be an improvised explosive device, Tushaus said. That slowed the search of the building as law enforcement agents waited for a bomb squad to clear the scene.

Tushaus said later that police didn't know whether the gunman brought the propane tank to the spa or whether a contractor left it.

The search was also complicated by the layout of the building, with numerous small treatment rooms and several locked areas, Tushaus said. While officers initially thought the gunman had fled the building, they later found his body in one of the locked areas, he said.

Police and swat team members at the Azana Spa in Brookfield, Wisconsin, hunt for a gunman who opened fire inside the spa, wounding seven people. Picture :Tom Lynn/AP

The bodies of the victims were also found in the spa. Tushaus said investigators were still working to identify them.

Haughton's father, Radcliffe Haughton, Sr., spoke to a television station and The Associated Press shortly before police announced his son's death. In telephone interviews from Florida, he said he had last spoken to his son a few days ago, but didn't have any indication anything was wrong. He begged his son to turn himself in.

After learning of his son's death, he said, "This is very sad."

Police released little about Haughton other than a physical description and a photo.

The spa in Brookfield Wisconsin where seven people were shot. Pic: Google Maps

Milwaukee FBI spokesman Leonard Peace said its SWAT team, hostage negotiators, command staff and victims specialists all helped with the response. But he declined to say how many FBI personnel were involved in all or provide details on what had happened.

Robert Schmidt, spokesman for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said it had 10 agents participating.

Witness David Gosh, of nearby West Allis, told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel he was returning from duck hunting with his father and a friend when he saw a woman emerge from the spa, screaming, as she ran into traffic. The area is near an interstate and a busy commercial road.

"She ran right out into the street was pounding on cars," Gosh told the newspaper. Moments later, a man with a handgun ran out. He appeared to be chasing the woman but then went back inside, Gosh said.

Witness Christopher Pfeiffer said he was on his way to a bookstore in the mall when he saw a young, barefoot woman running in the car park.

"She was screaming, yelling, crying hysterical. She was pleading for help," Pfeiffer, 47, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

"She kept saying, 'My mother was shot.' And she mentioned that there was a gunman. She ran into the bookstore and I followed her. But I watched her from afar."

People inside the mall waited patiently for updates during the lockdown. Gina Kralik, a bartender at Red Robin Gourmet Burgers in the mall, said people had been allowed to leave at one point but then police had decided not to let anyone come or go from the mall.

"We're just sitting watching the news and also trying to find out what's going on," she said about 3 p.m.

Austin Della, 17, was working at a department store in the mall when he heard announcements over the loudspeaker asking people to move their cars out of one of the parking lots. The mall was then locked down for almost three hours, he said, and customers joked about the good service they would get as the only clients in the whole store.

"Everyone was really calm," Della said. "If not for all the announcements, I don't think anyone would have known that anything was happening."

It was the second mass shooting in Wisconsin this year. Wade Michael Page, a 40-year-old Army veteran and white supremacist, killed six people and injured three others before fatally shooting himself Aug. 5 at a Sikh temple south of Milwaukee.

The shooting at the mall took place less than a mile from where seven people were killed and four wounded on March 12, 2005, when a gunman opened fire at a Living Church of God service held at a hotel.

* Readers seeking support and information about suicide prevention can contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or MensLine Australia 1300 78 99 78.

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