Another mass shooting in milwaukee area

Several hours after the shooting — and after officers worked to clear what they initially described as an improvised explosive device in the spa — they entered the salon and found the gunman dead, a police official said.

There were no immediate details about how he died.

The shooting occurred around 11 a.m. Central time at the Azana Salon and Spa in Brookfield, about eight miles northwest of Milwaukee, Chief Daniel K. Tushaus of the Brookfield Police Department said at a news conference.

Chief Tushaus identified the suspect as Radcliffe F. Haughton, 45, a resident of Brown Deer.

Police officials released no information about a possible motive, but court documents show that a restraining order was filed against Mr. Radcliffe this month.

Four people with minor injuries sustained in the shooting were taken to Froedtert Hospital in Milwaukee, said Beth Strohbusch, a spokeswoman for the hospital.

Later on Sunday, officials released a statement saying that the hospital was on “lockdown” and that no one would be admitted without a police escort.

Witnesses described a panicked scene outside the spa as people, some barefoot and in robes, ran into the parking lot screaming and crying.

Joe Brent, 27, of Minneapolis said he was in a McDonald’s next door to the spa when he heard a gunshot. He said almost immediately, a police officer entered the restaurant and ordered everyone out.

“Everybody was keeping calm, but we were all confused about what was going on,” said Mr. Brent, who was in town for a job interview on Monday.

He said as he was leaving the McDonald’s he saw a woman in her 20s leaving the salon, holding a paper towel to her bleeding neck as a police officer escorted her to an ambulance.

“It was pretty bad,” Mr. Brent said. “I was surprised that she was able to walk.”

He said he then got into his car and drove across the street to a mall and watched the developments. He said he saw officers carry two more women from the salon and put them on stretchers.

The shooting comes less than three months after a self-proclaimed white supremacist named Wade M. Page opened fire in a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wis., another suburb of Milwaukee. Six people were killed before the police shot and killed Mr. Page.

Brookfield was also the scene of a mass shooting in 2005. In that incident, a gunman killed seven people, including two teenage boys, at an evangelical church meeting. The gunman, a member of the church named Terry Ratzmann, 44, later killed himself.

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