7 Killed, 4 Wounded at Church Services

A man opened fire at a Wisconsin church service Saturday, killing seven members of a congregation that preaches nonviolence and “end-time” prophecies before taking his own life, authorities said. Four others were wounded.

The shootings took place shortly before 1 p.m. during the weekly services of a Living Church of God congregation in Brookfield, Wis., a suburb of Milwaukee. The congregation, which observes a Saturday Sabbath, convenes regularly at a meeting room of the Sheraton Milwaukee Brookfield Hotel.

Inside the hotel were five bodies, including that of the 45-year-old gunman, said Sherri Stigler, a Brookfield Police communications supervisor.

Three other people died a short time later at a hospital in nearby Wauwatosa.

Those killed included six males, ages 15, 17, 44, 50, 58 and 72, and a 55-year-old woman, a Brookfield Police spokesperson said. They were not identified. The wounded included a 10-year-old girl who was listed in stable condition at a nearby children’s hospital.

The congregation has been meeting at the hotel every Saturday for about five years, officials said.

The victims were all in the same room at the time of the shooting, said Brookfield Police Chief Daniel Tushaus. One of the victims was believed to be the congregation’s minister.

Police did not identify the gunman, but an official close to the investigation told The Times on Saturday night that authorities believe the suspect is Terry Ratzmann, who lived with his mother and sister in New Berlin, Wis., a town of about 40,000 people that abuts Brookfield.

“It shocks and dismays us,” said Ted Wysocki, mayor of New Berlin. “It makes no sense. It just makes no sense. This is not the way we are. This is not our city.”

A member of the congregation who was in the room told reporters outside the hotel that the gunman was sitting quietly but then stood and began shooting. The woman, Chandra Frazier, said the man had three clips of bullets and stopped to reload at least once.

“He planned to shoot us all,” she said.

Frazier described a chaotic and hellish scene as the shooting broke out. One man covered a woman with his body. “He took her bullet,” she said.

“It was mayhem,” she said. “I dove under a chair. The man whose chair I dove under, he died.... The people who died are very nice people, very decent people. I’m just asking myself: Why am I still alive?”

The gunman used a handgun, authorities said. They declined to discuss any possible motives.

The church placed a statement on its website saying that it was helping police.

“This is a terrible tragedy; we are cooperating with the authorities to find out what happened,” the statement said. “We have deep concern and are fervently praying for the injured and for the families of the deceased.”

The Living Church of God is an evangelical organization that believes its duty is to preach the gospel, provide for the spiritual and material needs of members, and warn the world of “end-time prophecies” and the coming “Great Tribulation.”

The church has historically urged its members to remain “separate” from many civic activities -- to decline to participate, for instance, in juries or politics. Its members have historically declared themselves conscientious objectors, refusing to participate in wars.

Members of other Living Church of God congregations said the killings were announced during services Saturday.

“We were all shaken, naturally,” said Rod Townsend, a deacon of a congregation in North Little Rock, Ark. “We’re scattered all over the Earth. But when one part of the body hurts, the whole body hurts.”

Townsend said members of his congregation immediately thought of what seems to be a spate of recent and senseless violence, including the slaying of a federal judge’s husband and mother in Chicago and shootings in the Atlanta area.

“We live in a terrible time, a tragic time,” Townsend said. “There is just no love between human beings anymore. Now, if you get mad, you just shoot somebody.”

After the shootings in Brookfield, police and federal agents surrounded and locked down the hotel. Guests were told to return to their rooms and stay there.

One hotel guest, 48-year-old Karen Suick, told Associated Press that she and 15 others had arrived Friday night for a hockey tournament.

“One of our hockey dad’s two daughters are still in there,” she said. “They called his cellphone. They were OK.”

The Living Church of God has its roots in the old Worldwide Church of God, founded by the late Herbert W. Armstrong in Pasadena.

At the height of the church’s influence during the Armstrong years, its reputation went beyond its immediate membership, largely due to its magazine, Plain Truth, and Armstrong’s television broadcasts, “The World Tomorrow.”

But after Armstrong’s death in 1986, the church began to change. By 1995, it had disavowed much of Armstrong’s “end-time” theology and embraced more mainstream evangelical Protestantism.

But the changes shook much of the membership. In the immediate aftermath of the theological upheaval, eight splinter groups broke from the mother church and began their own “continuing” churches, each maintaining strict adherence to Armstrong’s original vision.

One of those was the Global Church of God, founded by Rod Meredith, a former high-ranking evangelist.

In 1998, the Global Church fired Meredith, according to a report by the Center for Studies on New Religions, touching off another schism.

Meredith then formed the Living Church of God.

Staff Writer Larry B. Stammer contributed to this report.