Police under fire for not arresting spa gunman last year

Talk about it

Brown Deer Police are being second-guessed about their decision not to arrest Brookfield spa gunman Radcliffe Haughton in an armed standoff last year. Haughton killed his estranged wife and two other women, and wounded four others before killing himself last Sunday. The shootings followed numerous domestic abuse incidents in the last 11 years for which her husband was never criminally charged. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel questioned some national law enforcement experts who said Brown Deer Police ignored protocol by leaving a standoff last year without arresting Haughton. Three officers saw him pointing what appeared to be a rifle at his wife Zina. Officers set up a perimeter around the couple’s home. Haughton ignored orders to drop the weapon, and the officers later left without making an arrest. David Thomas of Johns Hopkins University told the Journal Sentinel it was unacceptable for the officers not to check out the apparent weapon. David Klinger, an expert on the use of police force at Missouri-Saint Louis, said the Brown Deer officers clearly had cause to arrest Haughton for a felony in what he called a “brazen, brazen attack.” On Monday, Brown Deer Police Chief Steve Rinzel issued a statement that the officers were not certain that Haughton had a rifle. But the department sought a felony charge that required the officers to believe he was armed. The D-A eventually filed a disorderly conduct charge, which was dropped when an officer went on vacation during the time he was supposed to testify.

__________________________________________________________________________

Maelyn Lind died as a hero in last Sunday’s spa shootings in Brookfield. Police said the 38-year-old Lind was trying to protect the 20-year-old daughter of Zina Haughton, the estranged wife of gunman Radcliffe Haughton. At a news conference last night, Lind’s father Keith Hanson said he wasn’t surprised that his daughter died so somebody else could be saved. Lind ran her own salon – but her father said she never steered business away from the Azana Salon-and-Spa where the shootings occurred last Sunday. Hanson said his daughter’s salon is quote, “like my little chapel right now.” He said his daughter did many kind-and-generous things – like working three jobs to support her family, and driving across Wisconsin to help a friend in trouble. Zina Haughton and 35-year-old Cary Robuck of Racine were also killed before the gunman took his own life. Robuck’s funeral will be held Friday in Racine. Four other women were wounded. Three remain hospitalized, all in satisfactory condition.

Tags: news, crime, courts, wisconsin