8 Shot at Wauwatosa Mall, Wisconsin’s Fifth Mass Shooting of 2020

“We deserve more than thoughts and prayers,” Lt. Gov. Barnes says.

Eight people were shot Friday afternoon at Mayfair Mall in the western Milwaukee suburb of Wauwatosa.

Wauwatosa Police Chief Barry Weber said the shooter, believed to be a white man in his 20s or 30s, shot seven adults and one teenager around 2:50 p.m. Friday. The shooter was still at large as of a 5:50 p.m. update from Weber.

First responders took all of the victims to the hospital. None was killed in the initial shooting, Weber said, though he had no status update on them during his briefing.

This shooting marks the fourth mass shooting in Milwaukee County this year and the fifth in southeastern Wisconsin. 

A frustrated Molson Coors employee shot and killed five of his coworkers in February at the historic Miller Brewery in Milwaukee before killing himself. In April, a Milwaukee man was charged with shooting and killing five members of his family at their home. In June, three teens and two young adults were shot and wounded at Racine’s North Beach. And in September, someone in a car opened fire on a crowd that had just left a funeral on Milwaukee’s north side, wounding seven.

Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, who sharply condemned the Republican leadership of the Wisconsin Legislature for its inaction on gun control bills after the MolsonCoors shooting, responded to Friday’s shooting in a tweet on his personal account and again urged legislative action.

“Our community has been through so much,” Barnes, a Milwaukee native, wrote. “As we await the details, always remember that we deserve more than thoughts and prayers.”

Gov. Tony Evers called a special session on gun violence last year, but Republicans gaveled it in and out in just 15 seconds. 

Hours before the Molson Coors shooting Evers again called for Republicans to take action on common-sense gun safety laws that would institute universal background checks and create a red-flag process to enable family members or law enforcement to temporarily take away a person’s guns if a judge finds them to be a danger to themselves or others. About 80% of Wisconsinites support such measures.