Six dead, one injured in shooting at home in US

(AP)
Updated: 2007-06-10 22:47

DELAVAN, Wisconsin - A shooting inside a home killed six people, and a toddler was found in a nearby vehicle with a gunshot to the chest, the police chief said Sunday.

Police found the bodies while investigating a report of shots fired Saturday night in the small southern Wisconsin town, Chief Tim O'Neill said.

The wounded child, a 2-year-old girl, was taken to a hospital in Rockford, Illinois, where she was reported in critical condition late Saturday, hospital officials said. Rockford Memorial Hospital officials said she was flown to the University of Wisconsin Hospital in Madison, where officials did not immediately give her condition Sunday morning.

Police cordoned off a two-block area around the crime scene Sunday morning, wheeling out bodies as neighbors gathered on the sidewalks to watch the investigation on a tree-lined street and others stopped on their way to church.

"It's tragic. It's getting worse all the time," said James Brandenburg, 57, who spent several minutes praying outside the house. "If we want to, we can put a stop to this."

The house where the shootings took place is a rental property where people often move in and out, said Pete Brancheau, 59, who lives across the street. He said he heard six shots Saturday night but thought nothing of it because children in the neighborhood play with firecrackers "all the time." About a minute later, he heard about three more shots.

"It's scary," Brancheau said. "Especially when there's a baby involved. There's no answer for it."

Delavan is a bucolic community of 8,000 people about 40 miles (64 kilometers) southwest of Milwaukee. The two-block downtown area has brick-covered streets. The P.T. Barnum Circus, "The Greatest Show on Earth," was founded in Delavan in 1871.



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