June 9, 2007

This morning I heard the phone ring 3 times close together. I get up to see who it was and it was my mom hysterical. She said to go online and to go on the news station. There was a shooting at Nicole's house. Nicole was my sister Holly's best friend. They had been best friends since the 3rd grade. Nicole and her twin sons and her daughter were living with her sister Ashley and her husband Gaspar. The article has the age of the boys messed up. The boys were 6 months old. Holly had her son in November and Nicole had the twins in December.
The person who did this senseless act was Nicole's ex boyfriend. After he shot everyone, he killed himself.

I talked to my mom and she talked to Nicole's mom and jasmine is improving. I feel horrible for Jasmine. She will never know her mom. I was told that this Vanessa person was a friend of Ashley's she had kids and now she is gone.

I cant remotely express my grief.. No explanation is acceptable to my mind. This should of never happened.

We just saw Nicole and Ashley in April. April 22md to be exact. We all went to the zoo for family free day. Ashley, Nicole and Jasmine came. I never actually got to meet the boys. I remember the last time my mom came to visit she said that she needed a bigger car. That we should get a bus, so we can fit all the kids including Nicole's.

Best friends are just an extension of the family. Last night my family lost 4 members of our family.

 I'm still waiting to her about funeral arrangements. As soon as I find out. I'll probobly be leaving town and going to the funeral.

DELAVAN - Six people were shot to death and a 2-year-old girl was wounded on a quiet street in a small Walworth County community.

Police were called to the area late Saturday night when neighbors reported hearing shots being fired. Investigating officers found the 2-year-old girl in a white mini-van with a gun shot wound to the chest. She was taken first to Lakeland Hospital, then transferred to Rockford Memorial Hospital in Illinois and then flown to UW Hospital in Madison. She was first reported to be in very critical condition, but has been upgraded to serious condition.

Walworth County SWAT Officers entered the home next to the van at 309 S. 2nd Street and found six people who had been shot to death.

Police Chief Timothy O'Neill said he will not release the names, ages and genders of the victims. He said the dead include four adults and two children. They are not all related. They were all found in an apartment on the second floor of the home.

A gun was recovered inside the apartment.

Vanessa Iverson, 19, was one of the victims. She was visiting fields in the apartment according to her family. Iverson was the mother of two young children and lived with her mother in Delavan.

Iverson was not married. Her family is not sure who will get custody of her children, a little boy and a little girl. Her children were not with her at the apartment.

The others in house at the time of the shooting were a friend of Iverson and the friend's husband, sister and brother-in-law, along with three children, including the 2-year-old and a set of twins, said Vanessa's sister-in-law, Sarah Iverson.

Marco Pastrana, 21, said his cousin, Ambrocio Analco, 22, was one of the dead. He said Analco went to the house where the shooting occurred to drop off Analco's twin boys, who were either 2 or 3 months old, and 2-year-old daughter, Jasmine.

"It came to my mind that this was not true," Pastrana said. "But when I came here I went to talk to the cops and they tell me that he was dead, his kids were dead and one was in the hospital."

Their mother lived at the house, Pastrana said, adding that he did not know the twins' names or their mother's last name.

"I'm sad and mad at the same time because I don't know what happened," Pastrana said. The area around the home has been blocked off and a police command post has been set up.

The Walworth Sheriff's Department was called to the scene to assist with the investigation.

Authorities started removing the bodies from the home just after 8:30 a.m.

Police are talking to family members and learning more about the situation at the household.

Chief O'Neill told a noon time press briefing that the investigation had been turned over to the state Division of Criminal Investigation. He also said that long time County Coroner John Griebel would be notifying families and releasing the names of the dead. O'Neill said the shooter maybe among the dead, but he's not 100 percent sure of that yet.

Police cordoned off a two-block area around the crime scene as neighbors gathered on the sidewalks to watch the investigation.

One of the spectators was next-door neighbor Jesus Valadez, 27, who said he was outside in spite of police telling him to stay indoors and keep his doors locked.

"It's kind of scary," Valadez said. "Exciting, don't get me wrong. Better than watching TV."

James Brandenburg, 57, of Delavan dropped to his knees as police wheeled out bodies at mid-morning and threw his arms to the sky. He had spent several minutes earlier, also on his knees, praying.

"It's tragic. It's getting worse all the time," he said. "If we want to, we can put a stop to this."

Pete Brancheau, 59, who lives across the street from the shooting scene, said it is a rental property where people often move in and out. He heard six shots Saturday night but thought nothing of it because children in the neighborhood play with firecrackers "all the time," he said.

About a minute later, he heard a series of about three shots, he said. He looked outside a few minutes later and saw police cordoning off the area.

It's scary," he said. "Especially when there's a baby involved. There's no answer for it."

Delavan is a bucolic community of 8,000 people about 40 miles southwest of Milwaukee. The white house where the shootings took place is on a tree-lined street that is a block from a United Methodist Church. Churchgoers stopped and watched the scene briefly as they were on their way to Sunday morning services.

The city two-block downtown area has brick-covered streets. The P.T. Barnum Circus, "The Greatest Show on Earth," was founded in Delavan in 1871.