NEWS

Police search prom shooter's home

Alison Dirr
USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin

ANTIGO - The family of a boy who was shot as he and his date left Antigo's prom Saturday issued a statement Monday thanking police who held a press conference at which few new details of the shooting were released.

A sign sits in the front lawn of a home along 10th Avenue depicting the Antigo High School mascot, April 25, 2016. A school shooting at the prom left the perpetrator dead and two others injured with gunshot wounds.

The parents, who asked that their names be withheld, said in the statement released through the Antigo Police Department that their son is doing well and that the family's faith is serving them through their crisis.

"We are so thankful for (the victim's) girlfriend and two friends on the scene who acted so bravely and calm," the family said. "We would also like to thank the police officers who responded so quickly, the medical staff, doctors and the surgeons that already have gone above and beyond to help our son, and all the law enforcement from many counties who have dedicated themselves to investigating this shooting.

"We would like to especially thank the officers who saved the lives of our son, his girlfriend, their two friends and the countless amount of students, staff and others in and around the school," the family said.

Antigo Police Chief Eric Roller said at a press conference Monday that the couple right behind the two victims tended to them immediately after the shooting.

The family also asked the community to pray for the family of the accused gunman, Jakob Wagner. Wagner died at a local hospital early Sunday morning.

"As much as we are struggling through this event, we cannot imagine the grief they are experiencing at this time. We want everyone to know that we believe and trust in the eternal God," the statement said.

The shooting happened at about 11 p.m. Saturday as students were leaving prom at the high school. Police shot Wagner after he injured two students who suffered non life-threatening injuries and were treated at a local hospital. Police and the school district held a press conference at 2 p.m.on Monday at the Antigo City Council Chambers and released additional information. They also said there is a lot that law enforcement continues to investigate.

Antigo Police held a 2 p.m. press conference Monday at which Roller, chief of the 15-officer department, declined to offer any details about the rifle involved, how Wagner got it, what might have motivated him or what they have learned over the preceding 36 hours. He would only say the gunman and victims were relatively close to one another when gunfire broke out and that police, alerted by the sound of shots being fired, quickly subdued Wagner.

It appears that Wagner came on a bicycle and the rifle was the only weapon police found, Roller said. He did not know how long Wagner had been there before the shooting.

He said police searched Wagner's home Sunday but would not say what the search revealed or whether they have uncovered any information about whether the attack was planned or spontaneous, though he did say Wagner did not appear to target his victims specifically. He said Wagner was armed only with a rifle, but declined to answer questions about what sort of rifle it was or how many rounds of ammunition Wagner had.

He declined to identify the officers involved in the shooting and said an autopsy has been completed on Wagner's body, though he released no details.

One officer fired at Wagner and is now on administrative leave, as is procedure, he said.

Roller was not sure whether there was video of the shooting itself. He said that Antigo officers do not wear body cameras and when the additional officers from Antigo and other agencies arrived, the shooting was over. The school district and Wisconsin Department of Justice Division of Criminal Investigation, which is heading up the investigation, are determining whether there was surveillance video from the school, he said.

The chief also expressed condolences to his Wagner's family.

The family statement and press conference were the latest in a series of events that unfolded Monday as students and residents in Antigo returned to their daily routines and tried to come to terms with the weekend prom shooting that left Wagner dead, two students injured and a lot of questions yet to be answered — many surrounding the news that Wagner had been bullied during his years in school.

Randy Huff, 59, is an Antigo resident and business owner who told USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin that he got to know Wagner over the past three years.

Huff’s shop, Antigo Resale Frontier on Fifth Avenue, became an occasional stop for Wagner after Huff started talking to the young man about a guitar he was carrying on the street one day, he said. Other shop owners knew him, too, Huff said.

A school bus rolls into Antigo High School through thick fog Monday morning, April 25, 2016, less than two days after a deadly school shooting at the high school prom.

Huff, who trusted Wagner enough to let him mind the shop when Huff had to step out, was shocked when the young man who he described as always honest, polite and willing to go out of his way to help was identified as the shooter.

“I can’t say enough nice things about him from the short time that I’ve known him,” Huff said.

He’s frustrated by reports that Wagner was bullied from grade school into high school, and wondering to himself, why did those people who knew he was hurting not help him? Was he getting the help he needed?

“There was a comment made that of all people in Antigo, he would be the one that they would suspect as a shooter and that, that, that did a lot to me,” he said. “I can’t believe that anybody would bring — you know, if they knew that he was in this situation and felt that way, why something wasn’t said? Why wait until after the young man has done what he’s done, he’s no longer with us, to say something like that?”

Huff himself never heard from Wagner about any bullying, he said. The young man seemed interested in music and wanted to buy a guitar from Huff.

Guns were another topic that Wagner never mentioned to Huff.

“He didn’t strike me as one that would be real familiarized with guns,” Huff said.

He’s thankful that none of the students who were shot at were killed and gives the Antigo Police Department a “100 percent attaboy” for their efforts.

Like the victim's family, Huff believes police saved a lot of lives Saturday night.

The scars of that night already are changing the community of about 8,000 people 35 minutes northeast of Wausau.

As they walked to high school Monday morning, juniors Nick Grabowsky, 17, and his girlfriend Bailey Bessert, 16, were coping with the horror of the shooting and the thought of returning to its scene. Antigo police squad cars were parked outside the school, part of the heightened security that local police promised Sunday night as they anticipated classes resuming.

The two were at prom Saturday night when Wagner, who Grabowsky said graduated last year, shot at students in the parking lot and hit two before being killed by police.

"You expect it could happen but you never expect it to happen to you," he said.

He said Wagner had been one of his friends for about a year. Grabowsky was heartbroken and shocked to find out who the shooter was.

Wagner had been "bullied a lot," former classmate Emily Fisher, 19, who graduated from Antigo High School in 2015, told USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin.

The bullying began in middle school and continued into high school, although to a lesser degree, she said.

Outside the courthouse on Monday, Dwaine Packard, 56, of Antigo was walking his two terriers around 9 a.m. as a chilly drizzle fell from the dark skies above the city.

Randy Huff, 59, of Antigo, surveys the block outside of his store, Antigo Resale Frontier, in downtown Antigo, Wisconsin, during the rainy morning hours April 25, 2016.

The shooting is all anyone is talking about, he said. People are solemn, shedding tears for the kids who got shot, the fear kids feel after the shooting — and for Wagner's family.

"People online have said mean things about the shooter and no one knows what the shooter was going through and it's not his family's fault," he said.

He thinks the community will pull together even more after experiencing violence uncommon in northeast Wisconsin. The shooting was an isolated incident in an otherwise wonderful community, said Packard, who has lived in Antigo for all but about 20 years of his life.

He was at home across from the police department Saturday night and saw police go tearing toward downtown. He figured it was a bar fight, something far more common in the city than armed teens.

Then he saw on Facebook that there had been a shooting at the high school. His cousin's daughter was at prom, he said, and he learned only at 12:30 a.m. or 1 a.m. Sunday that she was unharmed.

A woman walks along Edison Street in downtown Antigo, Wisconsin in the rain April 25, 2016.

"I was up most of the night praying about (the shooting)," he said.

Like others, he credits police with preventing even more casualties and said the community is proud of their work.

An initial investigation indicated Wagner was the only shooter involved, police said. They planned to search his residence Sunday for any evidence relevant to the shooting.

The day after the shooting, residents and students were looking for answers. Student Nikita Deep told a reporter from the USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin that she knew Wagner through marching band. It was hard to wrap her head around what had happened, she said.

The top of the Langade County Circuit Courthouse in Antigo, Wisconsin April 25, 2016.

RELATEDJustice Dept. investigates Antigo shooting

The Wisconsin Department of Justice's Division of Criminal Investigation is investigating the shooting.

The investigation at the school was finished Sunday and school would resume Monday so students and staff could access counseling, the Unified School District of Antigo said on its website Sunday evening.

"The Department of Criminal Investigation, Antigo Police Department, Langlade County Sheriff’s Department and other law enforcement agencies conducted a thorough search of the High School building and the on-site investigation has been completed," the district said. "The advice of these experts is to resume school on Monday so that students and staff can have access to support from counselors who will be available at all school sites."

There would also be a "heightened police presence" around the high school for a few days.

The high school has about 800 students, according to the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction.

TIMELINEDeadly school shootings since Columbine

Alison Dirr: 920-996-7266 or adirr@gannett.com; on Twitter @AlisonDirr