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Police believe religious turmoil led man to trade Bible for gun
Pastor, family called targets
Terry W. Ratzmann arrived at a Brookfield hotel before his church’s service Saturday, carrying a Bible in a briefcase and speaking to fellow parishioners, police revealed Monday.
But then Ratzmann left for home, where he apparently exchanged his Bible for his Beretta 9mm handgun and plenty of ammunition. He returned to the hotel and, wearing dark sunglasses, silently entered the church service and opened fire, and at one point looked a 12-year-old boy in the eye before firing at him, the boy’s father said.
Ratzmann apparently targeted certain people, including the church’s pastor, Randy Gregory, his wife and 16-year-old son, authorities said. Others were hit because they sat near the pastor.
Firing 22 shots in a minute, the 44-year-old engineer shot 11 people, killing seven before turning the gun on himself.
On Monday, authorities discounted Ratzmann’s job status as a motive, saying his job as a contractor for GE Healthcare in Waukesha was due to end March 25 but he wasn’t being fired and co-workers and bosses didn’t indicate he had problems.
Officials instead focused their search for a motive on Ratzmann’s relationship with the Living Church of God, a small congregation he joined four or five years ago and whose services he regularly attended at the Sheraton Milwaukee Brookfield Hotel.
They are studying the church membership, its leadership and a sermon given in a service at the same hotel Feb. 26, which Ratzmann left early without giving the closing prayer, as he was scheduled to do.
“We believe that the motive has something to do with the church and the church services, more so than any other possible motive,” Brookfield police Capt. Phil Horter said. “We are looking at the church totality.”
In that Feb. 26 service, a taped sermon focused on how bad fortune befalls those who make ungodly choices, according to a parishioner who was there and had known Ratzmann for years. That woman said Ratzmann had struggled with unemployment in recent years. Others who knew Ratzmann said he had lost a job he loved three years ago.
A Living Church of God official Monday said the church is investigating the Feb. 26 sermon, but “it had nothing to do with prophecy or any kind of sensational topic,” said Charles Bryce, the church’s national director of administration. “It was just about basic Christian living.”
Speaking at Froedtert Memorial Lutheran Hospital, where three church members are recovering from gunshot wounds, Bryce said, “There are some people who are saying that perhaps he was called upon to give the closing prayer and just got kind of nervous at the end, and that’s why he walked out.”
Horter said Ratzmann had given the closing prayer before and had left a service early, but witnesses said he had never walked out on his obligation to give the prayer.
Ratzmann did not come to the March 5 service, parishioners said. He came early on Saturday, but then left, and police aren’t sure why, Horter said.
Also Monday, police released tapes of 911 calls placed from inside the meeting room where the shooting occurred. They paint a terrifying picture of the rampage.
“Oh my, one of my friends is laying on the floor. I think she’s dead. Oh this is awful. This is a massacre,” one caller said.
Another said, “We thought it was just a balloon going off. And someone said, ‘This is real. This is real.’ “
Police continue to interview the nearly 60 people who were at the church service. Detectives also are examining four computers – three from Ratzmann’s home and one from his workplace – that hold thousands of files, including dozens that are encrypted, Horter said. Detectives and an FBI agent are doing that analysis.
Ratzmann, who reloaded during the shooting, apparently deliberately shot at Pastor Randy Gregory, his wife and his 16-year-old son. The pastor and his son James, both of Gurnee, Ill., were killed. His wife, Marjean, remained in critical condition at Froedtert.
“Part of that comes from the fact that three members of the pastor’s family were victims. That would lead anyone to conclude or speculate those people were possibly targeted,” Horter said. Police think others were hit because they were close to the pastor’s family.
At one point, David Mohr – who had known Ratzmann for years – confronted him by name and said “Stop, stop. Why?” said one church member, Ella Frazier. Ratzmann then fired a few more times before killing himself, police said.
The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said Ratzmann bought the Beretta used in the shooting at Fletcher Arms in Waukesha on June 8, and a .22-caliber rifle, which was not used in the shooting, at a rural Wisconsin gun shop in 1982. The rifle, along with a box of 9mm ammunition, was found at the New Berlin home Ratzmann shared with his mother and sister, police said. The box was missing roughly the number of rounds fired at the hotel, police said.
Ratzmann previously had used the Beretta with someone from the church, but officials didn’t say when or where.
Authorities said they were entering a new phase of the investigation, examining evidence and continuing interviews, hoping to get answers for victims’ families and the public. However, they cautioned they may never know what snapped in Ratzmann’s mind.
“You are looking for logic in an illogical act, and we may not be able to provide that,” Waukesha District Attorney Paul Bucher said.
Dave Umhoefer and Jacqueline Seibel of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report
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