Radcliffe Haughton, 45, is suspected of targeting a Milwaukee-area mall on Sunday morning where his estranged wife is believed to have worked as a hair stylist. He was found dead hours later. NBC's Kevin Tibbles reports.
By M. Alex Johnson, NBC News
New in this version: Gunman found dead; two weeks ago slashed wife's tires
Updated at 8:31 p.m. ET: A man who was ordered last week to turn over all his weapons in a domestic dispute opened fire Sunday at his estranged wife's workplace near Milwaukee, killing three women and injuring four others, authorities said. He then apparently shot himself to death, police said.
Bill Dedman and Tricia Culligan of NBC News and Charles Benson, Todd Hicks, Susan Kim and Jermont Terry of WTMJ-TV in Milwaukee contributed to this report. Follow M. Alex Johnson on Twitter and Facebook.The suspect was identified as Radcliffe Franklin Haughton, 45, of Brown Deer, Wis., said Brookfield Police Chief Daniel Tushaus, who said Haughton was found dead in the building, a 9,000-square-foot, two-story salon and day spa across the street from a busy mall. ?Police had not identified the dead on Sunday evening.
Police told reporters they were expecting an armed encounter with Haughton, who was ultimately found in a locked area in the salon. It took several hours to find him because their search was slowed by concern there may have been an explosive device.?Police said it turned out to be a propane tank and they didn't know who brought it into the building.
Milwaukee County court records show that Haughton's wife, Zina Daniel Haughton, filed for a restraining order on Oct. 8.
Police said there had been a previous incident at the nail salon, and that Haughton had slashed his wife's tires.
A hearing was held on Thursday and Haughton was ordered to deliver his firearms to the sheriff and to have no contact for four years with the complainant or the residence. The complainant isn't identified in the court record, and the court records don't indicate whether he surrendered any firearms.?
Wisconsin court records
Court record online showing the restraining order against the suspect in the shooting.
Other records indicate that Haughton was also charged with disorderly conduct in January 2011, a charge that was dismissed in June 2011 when a witness failed to appear in court.
Police said the shootings began at 11:09 a.m. (12:09 p.m. ET) at the Azana Day Spa, across Moorland Road from Brookfield Square mall in Brookfield, about 10 miles west of Milwaukee. The mall was closed as SWAT team members scoured the area for Haughton.
Froedtert Memorial Lutheran Hospital in Milwaukee, where the victims, aged 22, 30, 32 and 40, were taken for treatment, said the survivors were women who had been shot. Two were undergoing treatment in the emergency room for non-life-threatening conditions, and the two others underwent surgery. Their conditions weren't reported.
The hospital said it?had resumed normal operations after having been locked down while Haughton was still believed to be at large.
Zina Haughton has a state license as a cosmetology manager. Two workers at the salon said Zina Haughton was estranged from her husband.
Brookfield, Wis., Police Chief Daniel Tushaus says Radcliffe Haughton was found dead after shooting at least seven people at a day spa.
Records suggest that Haughton had endured several years of financial problems, with a civil judgment for $19,000 in 2006 and a state tax lien for $5,000 in 2009. His home has been listed as for sale by owner. His former job, from 2003 to 2007, is listed in public records as general manager of a former Land Rover dealership in the Glendale area of Milwaukee County.
Auto advertisements and business records list a man named Radcliffe Haughton as sales manager at an auto dealership in Milwaukee. Calls to the dealership weren't returned.
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Suspect's father aghast
Haughton's father, also named Radcliffe, was shocked and dismayed upon learning that his son was the suspect.
"Oh, my God," the elder Haughton told WTMJ in a telephone interview from his home in Florida. "The Haughton family apologizes, and we are sorry."
"This is not a reflection of the Haughton family," he said, adding: "One member of the Haughton family has done something terrible. This is not the Haughtons' way. This is not the way we live. This is not how I raised my son up."
Haughton told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel that he spoke to his son just last week, telling him he could stay with him in Florida if he needed to.
"I told him, 'Whatever you do, don't do anything stupid,'" the elder Haughton said.
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People run screaming from spa
At the scene of the shootings, an eyewitness, Jenny Remshak, told WTMJ that she was parked nearby when she saw a woman "crawling out of the building, and she rolled over to the cops, and they picked her up and took her right away in the ambulance."
A few minutes later, "about 10 people come running out of the building, screaming," Remshak said.
"Everybody was just grabbing their hearts and covering their mouths and watching in fear," she said.
It was the second mass shooting in the Milwaukee area in just 2? months. A gunman opened fire at a Sikh temple near Milwaukee on Aug. 5, killing six people and wounding at least three others, before being shot to death.
Three people were killed and a fourth was injured last week when a gunman stormed a hair salon in Casselberry, Fla. The gunman then killed himself.
NBC's Isolde Raftery contributed to this report.
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