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Prosecutors unable to find motive for slaying of 7 at Wisconsin church

Associated Press, via the Chicago Sun-Times, USA
Aug. 3, 2005
Ryan Nakashima
www.suntimes.com

ReligionNewsBlog.com • Wednesday August 3, 2005

MILWAUKEE — Prosecutors ended their investigation Tuesday into a shooting at a Wisconsin church service without determining why the gunman carried out a vendetta against the pastor from Gurnee and his family before shooting eight others and killing himself.

Waukesha County District Attorney Paul Bucher told the Associated Press that it was unclear what specifically drove Terry Ratzmann to target the pastor and his family in the March shooting spree.

”That’s the thing we cannot identify; that’s what we’ve been struggling to find,” he said. ”But it’s clear to me that that was his target of aggression.”

Gunman blamed pastor for problems

Prosecutors had been looking for a clear motive on why Ratzmann, a 44-year-old New Berlin, Wis., man, walked into a church service at the Brookfield Sheraton hotel in Brookfield, Wis., and shot to death seven people and injured four with a 9mm Beretta handgun before shooting himself in the head.

”Ratzmann, for various reasons, felt the church, particularly the pastor, was responsible for some of the issues Mr. Ratzmann was dealing with — depression, employment issues, financial issues,” Bucher said.