MILWAUKEE (AP) - A 5-year-old girl was fatally shot while sitting on her grandfather’s lap when two people approached her Milwaukee home and opened fire, according to police, who sought help Friday in finding the suspects.
Laylah Petersen was shot in the head when one of a dozen bullets that hit the home came through a wall about 6 p.m. Thursday. Laylah, who was sitting on a couch with her grandfather, died at a hospital.
Investigators said there was no clear motive for the shooting and they needed the public’s help to find those responsible for the shooting on the city’s northwest side. Police said officers had no previous calls to the home, and they don’t believe anyone living at the home was specifically targeted.
“We believe that this bullet read, ’To whom it may concern.’ And that concerns all of us, and that should concern everybody in our community,” Capt. Aaron Raap said during a news conference Friday. “If you saw something, say something. If you hear something, say something.”
Raap said initial descriptions of the shootings as being “targeted” referred to the fact that all 12 bullets fired hit the house. Officers found a dozen casings at the scene, and were looking into whether more than one handgun was used. They also were interviewing witnesses and seeking any possible surveillance video.
Police Chief Edward Flynn said two young children were being raised by their grandparents in the house, where people left flowers, toys and other items in a makeshift memorial for the little girl Friday.
“This is a stable, loving, working family in a stable working-class neighborhood where everybody is trying to do the right thing,” Flynn said.
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MADISON, Wis. (AP) - Ryan Murray, the second in command at Gov. Scott Walker’s job-creation agency, is resigning.
Murray announced his resignation on Friday, just three days after Walker won re-election to a second term. Murray is the first high-level Walker administration official to resign after the election.
Murray was policy director for Walker’s first gubernatorial campaign in 2010 and rose to be his deputy chief of staff before taking the No. 2 position at the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. in July 2012.
Murray says he is leaving at the end of the month for an unspecified private sector job.
Murray’s competency was called into question by WEDC vice president Lee Swindall, who resigned following disagreements with Murray in August then rejoined the agency two days later.
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MADISON, Wis. (AP) - A federal judge has agreed to temporarily put on hold a lawsuit challenging Wisconsin’s campaign coordination law and how it applies in cases involving political speech.
U.S. District Judge Rudolph Randa issued an order Thursday agreeing with a joint request made by the conservative group Citizens for a Responsible Government and the state elections board asking that the lawsuit be paused.
CRG intends to pursue the case before the Wisconsin Supreme Court and the Government Accountability Board has agreed not to enforce the law in the meantime.
The law is at the center of an investigation into Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s 2012 recall campaign and more than two dozen conservative groups. Randa blocked enforcement of it last month while the CRG lawsuit was pending.
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BELOIT, Wis. (AP) - Madison-based Alliant Energy Corp. says it will ask the state for permission to build a large natural-gas fired plant near Beloit.
Alliant says the plant is necessary to replace its less-efficient coal and natural-gas plants around the state. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports (https://bit.ly/1orH1Ochttps://bit.ly/1orH1Oc ) the company estimates the plant would cost between $725 million and $775 million and would generate power for more than 500,000 homes.
The company plans to submit a formal application to the state early next year, and wants to have the plant running in 2019.
Alliant is the parent company of Wisconsin Power and Light Co. It’s not clear how much customers’ bills would increase.
Kira Loehr is executive director of the Citizens’ Utility Board. She says Wisconsin shouldn’t commit to new plants without examining alternatives.
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Information from: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, https://www.jsonline.comhttps://www.jsonline.com
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