Police in Brookfield, Wisconsin, Investigate Shooting at Living Church of God That Left 7 Dead

Police in suburban Milwaukee are investigating a Saturday morning shooting at a Living Church of God service in Brookfield, Wisconsin. Members of the congregation reportedly had no reason to be concerned when Terry Ratzmann, 44, walked into the room, though he had not attended in a couple of weeks. The congregation regularly met for worship in a conference room at the Sheraton Hotel in Brookfield, because the group has no church building there.

Seconds after entering, Ratzmann opened fire, firing 22 bullets from a 9 mm handgun within a minute. Before the shooting stopped, the pastor, the pastor’s son and five other church members were dead, and four others were wounded. Ratzmann also died, having killed himself. Brookfield police chief Daniel Tushaus said that, according to witnesses, Ratzmann reloaded once during the gunfire and then shot himself once in the head.

Police say Ratzmann walked out of a church meeting two weeks before the shooting, apparently upset about a sermon, according to CBS News correspondent Kelly Cobiella. Police also say he was about to lose his job. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported on Monday that the February 26 sermon that upset him had argued that people’s problems are of their own making. Police are studying encrypted files from three computers seized from the home Ratzmann shared with his mother and sister in New Berlin, Wisconsin, as they try to determine a motive. The newspaper reported that investigators also found a .22-caliber rifle and a box of bullets that matched those used in the killings. Police have not found a suicide note or anything else unusual in the house.

Friends and neighbors described Ratzmann as a quiet, buttoned-down churchgoer who shared homegrown vegetables and tended his garden. Several said they never expected him to be violent, though some said he had struggled with depression. One neighbor, Shane Colwell, who knew Ratzmann for about a decade, said, “He wasn’t a dark guy. He was average Joe.” Another neighbor described Ratzmann as a drinker. Kathleen Wollin, 66, who sat at the front of the room during the service, said, “Terry suffered from depression, on and off. When he was really depressed he didn’t talk to people. Sometimes it was worse than others.” Wollin’s account reflects her own experience with him and is not a finding by investigators.

About 10 people attended a candlelight prayer service outside the hotel on Sunday night. They gathered beside a snowbank in front of a memorial with more than 40 bouquets and 20 stuffed animals arranged before seven white crosses, each bearing a victim’s name and age. An eighth cross, bearing Ratzmann’s name, stood separately at the back, leaning against a tree with some bouquets. The gathering at the memorial points to the need for comfort in grief (Psalm 34:18).

The Living Church of God is described as a denomination that places a strong emphasis on using world events to prove the end of the world is near. Police Capt. Phil Horter said that one of Ratzmann’s friends begged him to stop, calling him by name and asking, “Stop, stop, why?”

Source: Read the original report