Three killed at US tavern

Suspect returned and opened fire after being told to leave

KENOSHA: Three people were killed and two were seriously wounded in a shooting at a busy tavern in southeastern Wisconsin, sheriff’s officials said.

Authorities said they had apprehended a person in connection with the shooting early Sunday.

Kenosha County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Sgt David Wright said the suspect was facing a charge of first-degree intentional homicide, with additional criminal charges likely after further investigation.

Authorities said earlier they weren’t sure if there was more than one shooter.

“There is no threat to the community at this time,” Wright said, adding that no further information on the suspect would be released on Sunday.

Kenosha County Sheriff David Beth said earlier that a suspect was asked to leave the Somers House Tavern in Kenosha County but returned and opened fire.

Beth said shots were fired inside and outside the bar, which he described as “very busy” at the time.

He said he believed at least one handgun was used.

Officials were still working to determine the identities of the three people who died. Beth said two people died at the scene.

The third person hopped in a car with two other people, who moments later flagged down a police vehicle. The officer drove the victim to a hospital where the victim was pronounced dead, Beth said.

The two people who were wounded by gunshots were taken to area hospitals.

There may have been more people with less serious injuries, and the sheriff’s department had contacted local hospitals to find them, Beth said.

He added that investigators were reviewing surveillance video from the scene.

A man who lives near the bar, Peter Ploskee, told WLS-TV he heard gunshots, looked out a window and saw “people running from the bar in every direction”.

“It was just chaos,” he said. “People are just running, people screaming.”

The nearby city of Kenosha was the scene of serious unrest last summer after police shot a young black man, Jacob Blake, leaving him paralysed.

A white Illinois teenager was accused of fatally shooting two people during the Kenosha protests.

Kyle Rittenhouse, of Antioch, is charged with homicide and attempted homicide in the Aug 25 shootings.

He has pleaded not guilty and says he fired in self-defence.