Wife of shooter among 3 killed in Wisconsin incident

An armed man wearing body armour burst into a beauty spa where his estranged wife worked in the US state of Wisconsin and opened indiscriminate fire, killing three women including his wife.

The man, who was later found dead clutching a .38 caliber handgun and a bullet in his head, was identified as 45-year-old African-American Radcliffe F Haughton whose wife worked at the spa in a Milwaukee suburb shopping centre.

All three of those killed were women, Brookfield Police Chief Dan Tushaus said. The area near the spa in Brookfield was locked down after the incident yesterday.

Aside from Zina Haughton, the perpetrator's wife, the other victims were were identified as Cary L. Robuck, 35, and Maelyn M. Lind, 38.

The incident was the second mass shooting in Wisconsin within three months. In August, six people were killed after a white supremacist opened fire at a Sikh Gurudwara.

Tushaus said the first officers on the scene found the building full of smoke from a fire believed to have been set by Haughton, who had been accused of slashing his wife's tyres two weeks before the shooting. A restraining order was placed against him and he was directed to surrender his firearms over a suspected domestic abuse case involving his wife.

Four women were also injured in the incident.

According to reports that have emerged Haughton had pleaded for help to leave the state before his violent outburst. "Need to get out of Wisconsin, HELP...," he wrote on Facebook Oct 8, the same day his 42-year-old wife filed for a restraining order against him.

President Barack Obama, who was informed about the incident, was told by his top national security officials that it was not an act of terrorism, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said.

"The President was told there was an active shooter in Brookfield, Wisconsin. He was informed that the shooting did not appear to be terrorism-related," he said in a statement.

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