According to the local sheriff, the suspect of a shooting at a restaurant inside a casino and hotel complex in Green Bay, Wisconsin, wherein two people were killed was a former employee.
The shooting happened around 8 p.m. on Saturday at the Radisson Hotel in Ashwaubenon's Duck Creek Kitchen + Bar. The Oneida Casino is adjacent to the hotel. At the time of the shooting, there were about 50 people in the restaurant and several hundred in the casino.
Suspect in Wisconsin casino shooting shot dead by responding cops
At a news conference on Monday, Brown County Sheriff Todd Delain said the alleged gunman, 62-year-old Bruce Pofahl, had been fired from the restaurant earlier this year and had been barred from the premises. According to the sheriff, Pofahl allegedly stormed the restaurant and shot Ian Simpson, 32, and Jacob Bartel, 35, at close range with a handgun at a waiter table.
He then went outside and fired another restaurant employee, Daniel Mulligan, 28, in a parking lot. Soon after, officers from the Green Bay Police Department shot and killed Pofahl.
Sheriff Delain said that no reason was identified other than Pofahl's recent loss of employment at the restaurant but that he was searching for another employee who was not there at the time of the shooting. As the Wisconsin Department of Justice investigates the shooting and police response, the three officers who shot Pofahl have been put on administrative leave, as per NY Daily News.
Wisconsin casino shooter threatened boss after getting fired
After a string of threats, including a warning message that said "times up," the supervisor of a Wisconsin restaurant threatened by gunman Bruce Pofahl received a temporary restraining order against him. According to online court documents, Elizabeth Walker, the owner of the Creek Kitchen and Bar where Pofahl worked before he was fired, received the order on March 9 alleging that her former employee engaged in a campaign of harassment and intimidation against her and her family.
Pofahl, 62, had been fired for a few incidents, including threats, said Walker, and had been sending her messages and emails for weeks harassing her and her family, including boasting he might ruin her sister's wedding, according to NBC News. Walker said Pofahl had sent her pictures of her house, as per the news outlet.
Pofahl did not attend the court hearing, citing high blood pressure and diabetes, as well as a fear of contracting COVID-19 if he attended. As Pofahl walked into the busy Oneida Nation casino and hotel complex with a 9mm handgun, heading for the restaurant, and opened fire Saturday night, police would not tell whether Walker was the intended victim.
Two restaurant employees were shot and killed inside the restaurant before Pofahl went outside and shot another employee. Dan Mulligan was reported in critical but stable condition following emergency surgery, said Brown County Sheriff Todd Delaine, who spoke to the media on Monday. Three police arrived on the scene and fatally shot Pofahl in an adjacent parking garage. The sheriff described it as a targeted crime but said the motive was still under investigation, NY Post reported.
