“All we can say right now is that the entire St. Mary’s Parish and community is praying for Tracy Czaczkowski and her family, and the family has asked for privacy”, a spokeswoman for the Archdiocese of Chicago told the Buffalo Grove Countryside.
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MADISON, WI–Federal authorities say an IL woman on her way home from the Wisconsin Dells with her family was shot in what is believed to have been a random drive-by shooting on a Wisconsin interstate. Hays was still at UW Hospital Tuesday. His 34-year-old brother is not being named due to his cognitive disability. The sheriff’s office said the man and the children were not injured.
“All of our thoughts and prayers are with this family who are traveling back to their home state after enjoying our handsome surroundings here in Wisconsin”, Dane County Sheriff David Mahoney said at a Monday press conference.
Police determined that a person of interest in the shooting was at Epikos Church on West Greenfield Avenue, and that the person had made threatening statements regarding a member of the church. No one at the church had been injured. One bullet lodged in the passenger-side door.
The investigation remains ongoing. The suspect then got out of the auto and walked toward the officers armed with a revolver, the sheriff’s office said. Officers from multiple agencies chased the Blazer into Dane County, where deputies stopped the SUV with a spike strip. The man in the Blazer fired three shots at the family’s vehicle, according to police, and fired shots at other vehicles, too.
The gunman’s brothers are being held at the Dane County Jail, the sheriff’s office said.
The suspect and his two brothers later drove in a Chevrolet Blazer to Wisconsin Dells, a city known for its theme parks. A second gun was also recovered from the Blazer. He ignored orders to drop the weapon, and two Columbia County deputies shot him, authorities said.
Investigators with the Wisconsin Department of Justice Division of Criminal Investigation are assisting the Columbia County Sheriff’s Office, Dane County Sheriff’s Office, Sauk County Sheriff’s Office, Wisconsin State Patrol and the West Allis Police Department.
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All lanes of the interstate near DeForest were closed Sunday afternoon because of the incident, according to a Department of Transportation release. Despite verbal commands to stop, the suspect continued to advance toward law enforcement officers and two Columbia County Deputies shot the suspect.
