GIJOEL
Member
I've been shooting at this range for nearly 15 years....
Second suicide in a week occurs at Badger Guns
By John Diedrich of the Journal Sentinel
Posted: May 1, 2010
A man committed suicide on the shooting range at Badger Guns on Saturday - the second such incident at the West Milwaukee store in less than a week.
In both instances, the victims shot themselves with firearms they rented from Badger Guns, police said. Two people killed themselves in a similar manner with rented guns at a range in Racine County in the past year.
On Saturday, police were called to Badger Guns at 4:30 p.m. and found a 50-year-old man dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, said West Milwaukee police Lt. Robert Bennett. One other person was on the range but was not injured. The shooting was captured on store video, he said.
Police identified the victim as Bruce P. Bethke of Oak Creek.
On Tuesday, Curtis M. Brown shot himself in the head with a gun on Badger Guns' shooting range, according to a report from the Milwaukee County medical examiner's office. Brown's mother told investigators that he had attempted to commit suicide a week earlier by overdosing on pills, the report says.
Bennett said the last suicide he recalled at Badger Guns or its predecessor, Badger Outdoors, was 12 years ago. Bennett said the range at Badger Guns was closed to replace carpeting from Tuesday until it reopened late Friday. Now, the range will be closed again, he said.
A message on the phone at Badger Guns on Saturday said the store was closed.
Two people committed suicide on the range at Shooters Sport Center in Caledonia in the past 14 months - the most recently on March 27. Both men killed themselves with guns rented from the store, according to reports from the Racine County medical examiner's office.
Wisconsin is not the only place where such suicides have occurred.
Last year in Florida, two people killed themselves within a month at a range with guns rented from a Seminole County gun store, according to news reports.
Over two years in the mid-1990s, seven people committed suicide on ranges with rented guns in California.