Call for Independent Review of Brookfield Shooting

A dozen lawmakers are calling for an independent review of how the Brown Deer police department handles domestic violence, following a deadly shooting last month at a Brookfield spa.

Over the course of a decade, police officers from the village of Brown Deer responded 20 times to the home of a man responsible for the deadly shooting.On October 21, Radcliffe Haughton went to the Azana Salon & Spa in Brookfield where his wife Zina worked. Police say he shot her and two co-workers dead before killing himself. Twelve lawmakers have written Brown Deer’s police chief asking for an independent investigation. State Rep. Terese Berceau says it’s important to know if officers have ongoing training on Wisconsin’s mandatory arrest law in suspected cases of domestic violence, and whether the department has guidelines for its officers, “No one knows if they have policies in place and unfortunately under the mandatory arrest law we don’t go in and monitor; they don’t have to report to anybody in terms of about why they didn’t go in and arrest someone until something bad happens. Until somebody’s dead.”

Brown Deer Police Chief Steven Rinzel has asked the state Department of Justice for training on how to handle domestic violence situations. He did not return a call for comment Wednesday.The letter sent to Rinzel by lawmakers criticizes comments he made regarding the lack of victim cooperation in previous incidents where police responded to the Haughton home.