A man suspected of shooting dead a retired judge reportedly had a “hit list” of leading Democrat and Republican figures including US Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers, and Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer.
Juneau County Circuit Court Judge John Roemer, 68, was found dead at his New Lisbon, Wisconsin, home on Friday evening, police said. Officers discovered the retired judge zip-tied to a chair with gunshot wounds.
Police are investigating the incident as a homicide and an act of domestic terrorism. 911 dispatch audio indicated that Judge Roemer’s son may have been home when the shooting occured.
The suspect, 56-year-old Douglas Uhde, is also in hospital in critical condition with reported self-inflicted gunshot wounds.
The Independent has contact lead investigators, the Wisconsin Division of Criminal Investigation, for comment.
“This does appear to be a targeted act,” Wisconsin attorney general Josh Kaul said on Friday. “The individual who is the suspect appears to have had other targets as well. It appears to be related to the judicial system.”
Officials have said the 56-year-old had additional targets in mind, but declined to disclose any names, only saying that those on the list have been briefed and were not in danger.
Local outlet WISN reported that a “hit list” of targets including Leader McConnell, Gov. Whitmer, and Gov Evers was found in the suspected gunman’s car, citing unnamed law enforcement sources.
The Independent has contacted Mr McConnell’s offices and the office of the Senate Sergeant at Arms for comment.
A spokesperson for Governor Evers said his office does not comment on matters related to his security detail.
“While the news reports are deeply troubling, we will not comment further on an ongoing criminal investigation,” a Whitmer spokesperson told ABC News.
Ms Whitmer was the target of a prior kidnapping plot in 2020.
A conspired to kidnap the governor in 2020, describing her as a “tyrant” for her Covid policies. The men, some of whom were said to be militia members, planned to kidnap her from a vacation home, put her through a show “treason trial”, and release her into Lake Michigan on a boat.
In April, four of the men charged in the plot escaped charges, with two being given a mistrial and two being found not guilty. Their attorneys argued they were only boasting about a plot that wouldn’t actually take place, and that they were enticed to a conspiracy by FBI informants.
Sauk County Sheriff’s Office, Mauston Police Department, Elroy Police Department, Wisconsin State Crime Lab, Wisconsin State Patrol, and the FBI are assisting in the investigation.
On Friday, police arrived at Judge John Roemer’s home after a 911 caller reported hearing two shots from inside the property.
“The son is saying that he woke up, saw a male subject with a firearm—a pistol, said that the subject did not see him and we was able to exit the house through a window,” a 911 dispatcher said, according to reports.
A SWAT team attempted to negotiate with the shooter, before entering the home nearly four hours later, according to the attorney general.
Uhde was convicted in 2005 of burglary while armed, as well as having a previous weapons charge on his record. Roemer was the judge in the burglary case who sentenced Uhde to six years in prison, the Wisconsin State Journal reports.
Roemer, before becoming a judge, served as a prosecutor, public defender, and US army reservist.
The shooting follows a spate of shocking gun violence across the US. In the space of several weeks there have been mass shootings at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, at a school in Uvalde, Texas, and at a medical center in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
The number of threats against judges has increased in recent years, according to data from US Marshals.
US District Judge Esther Salas’s son Daniel Anderl was shot dead at their family home in New Jersey in 2020 in a racially motivated attack. Self-described “antifeminist” lawyer Roy Den Hollander posed as a FedEx delivery driver before shooting Anderl. The attorney was later found dead with an apparently self-inflicted gunshout wound.
Judge Salas has been pushing for a federal bill to limit the amount of personal information available about public officials after New Jersey passed a similar state bill, known as as Daniel’s Law.
This article is being updated
