CHIPPEWA FALLS, Wis. _ Authorities believe a 33-year-old man fatally shot three family members with a handgun more than a day before he blew open the door of a Lake Hallie family Sunday night with a shotgun, then shot a husband and wife in their hands before he shot their daughter in the head and turned the gun on himself.
What remains unclear is the motive for the shootings, but investigators say they suspect that the shooter, Ritchie German Jr., may have been trying to kidnap Laile Vang, 24, similar to the kidnapping of 13-year-old Jayme Closs and the murder of her parents, James and Denise Closs, in Barron County, Wis., in October.
Chippewa County Sheriff James Kowalczyk said a motive remains unknown and may never be known, but authorities are poring through cellphones and other materials in an attempt to figure that out, Kowalczyk said. He confirmed that German had sent text messages of a sexual nature to Laile Vang, who responded that she didn't know him. And as far as anyone knows, German, who lived in Lafayette, Wis., had never previously been to the Vangs' home. He said that it was "most certainly" similar to the Closs case, where Jake Patterson shot and killed Jayme Closs' parents with a shotgun before kidnapping the 13-year-old, holding her captive for 88 days before she escaped.
"Why is he going armed to a residence he's never been to before? To our knowledge it's similar to the Closs situation," Kowalczyk said. "I'm not saying that was the motive, but I'm saying similar circumstances that happened in Barron County happened in Chippewa County."
Lake Hallie Police Chief Cal Smokowicz said German drove his brother's vehicle to the Vangs home and left it running.
That fact, and because a loaded handgun and some handcuffs were found in the vehicle, leads investigators to suspect it may have been similar to the Closs crime, Kowalczyk said.
Investigators believe he walked up to the house and fired through the door, where he met Laile Vang's father, Teng Vang, 51. German shot Teng Vang in the hand, then went on to shot his wife, Mai Chang Vang, 39, also in the hand. He proceeded to shoot Laile and then took his own life. Three others in the home, two juveniles and an adult, had taken cover and were uninjured.
A flood of 911 calls alerted police to unknown problems at the Vang residence about 10:22 p.m. Lake Hallie's two officers on duty arrived at 10:28, but by that time, all shooting had stopped, Smokowicz said.
"The matter is pretty much over as fast as it started," Kowalczyk said.
German was described by family members as troubled. He was unemployed and has lived off and on with his mother in Lafayette since about 2004, Kowalczyk said. His only criminal conduct took place in 2006 when his mother, Bridget German, 66, reported that he had threatened a brother with a firearm. He was arrested for reckless endangerment and given probation in that incident.
After discovering the shootings in Lake Hallie, investigators ran the license plates on the 2016 KIA they found outside the residence and discovered that it belonged to Douglas German, who lived with his mother in a Lafayette townhouse. There, they found the bodies of Bridget and Douglas German, along with Douglas German's son, Calvin, 8. All three had been shot in the head.
Investigators suspect they had been shot sometime Saturday because Bridget German's employer at a grocery store had called and left a message asking why she hadn't come to work. Ritchie German returned the call and said his mother was sick, Kowalczyk said. A neighbor boy also knocked on the Germans' door Saturday to asks if Calvin could come out and play, he said. The boy said Ritchie German told him that Calvin was out shopping with his mother.
Calvin's mother lives in California.
