Qualla: Crandon Shooting: When a Small Town Lost Its Innocence

Crandon Shooting: When a Small Town Lost Its Innocence: Introduction

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Crandon, Wisconsin, is the kind of place where everyone knows everyone. The Forest County seat sits deep in the Northwoods, a town of about 1,900 people where Friday night football games are community events and homecoming weekend brings generations together. On the night of October 6, 2007, students and recent graduates of Crandon High School gathered for a post-homecoming party in a duplex on the town's quiet streets. By 2:45 the next morning, six of them were dead, shot by someone they all knew -- a 20-year-old deputy sheriff named Tyler Peterson who had graduated from their same school just two years earlier.

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Crandon Shooting: When a Small Town Lost Its Innocence: A Badge and a Grudge

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Tyler James Peterson was born on March 6, 1987, and grew up in Crandon. He graduated from Crandon High School in 2005 and was hired as a full-time deputy in the Forest County Sheriff's Department on September 11, 2006, also serving part-time with the Crandon Police Department. He...

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Crandon Shooting: When a Small Town Lost Its Innocence: Thirty Rounds in the Dark

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Peterson fired approximately 30 rounds from his rifle as he moved through the duplex. He killed three people in the living room, one in the kitchen, one outside a closet, and one who had tried to hide inside a closet. The youngest victim, Lindsey Stahl, was just 14 years old. The...

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Crandon Shooting: When a Small Town Lost Its Innocence: A Manhunt Through the Northwoods

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Leaving the duplex, Peterson encountered officer Greg Carter driving toward the scene. Carter did not initially suspect his fellow officer. Peterson sprayed the windshield with gunfire, wounding Carter with flying glass. Carter threw himself sideways and reversed away. Peterson f...

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Crandon Shooting: When a Small Town Lost Its Innocence: The Long Aftermath

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Charlie Neitzel, the sole survivor, was discharged from the hospital on October 17, 2007, ten days after the shooting. The duplex where the murders occurred was demolished in June 2008, the community choosing to erase the physical reminder. Families of the victims sued the city, ...

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