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Two adults and two kids injured in Madison shooting

By TODD RICHMOND

Associated Press Writer

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Four people, including two children, were wounded early Saturday at a duplex in what investigators described as domestic shootings.

Madison police said they didn’t know what prompted the shootings and were waiting Saturday afternoon to talk to the victims, who were still emerging from surgery.

“I have four injured people and we don’t have a straight story on what happened,” Sgt. Phil Moore said.

A 42-year-old woman, 38-year-old man, 7-year-old-boy and 8-year-old girl were taken to a local hospital with gunshot wounds, Moore said. They all lived together in the duplex, but Moore didn’t elaborate on their relationships or identify them by name.

One victim ran across the street and called police about 6:20 a.m. Saturday, Moore said. Police recovered all the weapons involved, including at least one firearm, he said.

He declined to provide other details, but said everyone involved in the shootings had been identified and there was no threat to the community.

The white, single-story duplex sits in a neighborhood of modest multi-unit apartments on Madison’s southwest side. Police cordoned off the home with crime scene tape and spent a crisp, sun-splashed morning gathering evidence as neighbors watched.

Carmella Harris said she was a friend of the couple, although she knew them only by their first names. The children were theirs, she said.

Harris, who lives elsewhere in Madison, said she learned recently the couple had moved to the neighborhood. She stopped Saturday to see them and saw the police cars and reporters.

The man lost his construction job months ago, and the woman works as a nurse at a Madison nursing home, Harris said. The two argued but didn’t fight, she said. Still, she said the man sounded fine when she spoke to him on the phone Friday.

She cried when she learned of the shootings.

“I can’t even swallow it,” she said. “I can’t imagine either one of them doing anything to each other or their children.”

Neighbor Tiffany Driver said she knew the woman and her children.

“That’s bogus,” Driver said of the shootings. “She didn’t even smoke cigarettes. She works and takes care of her kids. She always had a smile on her face. She didn’t do no harm to anybody.”

Another neighbor, George Williams, said he and his wife moved to Wisconsin from Chicago years ago to escape gunplay and drugs. Now they’re right back in it, they said.

“You shouldn’t have to watch your kids out in your yard just to be scared for them,” Williams said as he watched police work. “Can’t we just get together and talk? It would stop a lot of stuff.”