Milwaukee shooting suspect had history of domestic abuse (+video)

A Wisconsin man suspected of opening fire at a salon where his wife worked, killing three women and wounding four others, had a history of domestic abuse and had been arrested for slashing his wife's tires a few weeks earlier, police said.

It wasn't clear if Radcliffe Franklin Haughton's wife was among the victims in the Sunday shooting. Haughton, 45, killed himself at the spa, police said. The shooting occurred in Brookfield, a middle-to-upper class community west of Milwaukee.

Haughton's wife sought court protection four days after he slashed her tires on Oct. 4, Brookfield police said. Police arrested him and a judge granted a four-year restraining order on Thursday. As part of the order, Haughton was prohibited from owning a firearm.

Police haven't said if Zina Haughton was among those killed or wounded.

In a written request for a restraining order filed Oct. 8, Zina Haughton said her husband was convinced she was cheating on him and that he also vowed to burn her and her family with gas. He said he would kill her if she ever left him or called the police, according to the court papers obtained Monday by The Associated Press.

"His threats terrorize my every waking moment," she wrote.

RELATED: How well do you know the Second Amendment? Take the quiz

Brookfield Police Chief Dan Tushaus declined to comment on whether Haughton had surrendered any weapons prior to Sunday's salon rampage. Tushaus also said he wasn't aware of a motive, but that investigators weren't looking for anyone else in the shooting.

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

The shootings set off a confusing, six-hour search for the gunman, forcing the lockdown of a nearby mall, a country club adjacent to the spa and the hospital where the survivors were taken.

Authorities said it would take time to sort out exactly what happened, and emphasized they were still interviewing witnesses and rescuers and didn't have a firm timeline of events. Brookfield Mayor Steve Ponto called the shootings "a senseless act on the part of one person."

The chaos started around 11 a.m. at the Azana Day Spa, a two-story, 9,000-square-foot building across from a major shopping mall. The first officers on the scene found the building filled with smoke from a fire authorities believe Haughton set, Tushaus said.

They also found a 1-pound 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.

1 | 2

Next