The gunman, Tyler Peterson

Crandon (Wisconsin), Oct. 8 (AP): An off-duty sheriff's deputy fatally shot six young people gathered for a pizza and movie party in a small Wisconsin town before being shot dead later by authorities, officials said. A seventh person was critically injured by the gunman.

The gunman, 20-year-old Tyler Peterson, worked full-time as a Forest County deputy sheriff and part-time as a Crandon police officer, said police chief John Dennee.

Three of the victims in yesterday’s shooting were students at the high school in this small northern Wisconsin town, and three were recent graduates, a school official said. Peterson may have graduated from the same high school. He was not working at the time of the shooting early yesterday, sheriff Keith Van Cleve said.

Van Cleve said he planned to meet the state attorney general to discuss the case and Dennee said the investigation would be handled by the state department of criminal investigation because the suspect was a deputy and officer.

The survivor remained in critical condition today at a hospital in nearby Marshfield, according to a nursing supervisor. A Crandon police officer who fired back was treated for minor injuries and released.

Gary Bradley, mayor of the city of about 2,000, said earlier yesterday that a police sniper killed the suspect, but Van Cleve would not confirm that officers shot the suspect.

Peterson was killed yesterday afternoon 13 km north of Crandon in the rural town of Argonne, Dennee said.

The circumstances of the shooting were hazy yesterday and it was not immediately clear what the gunman’s motive was, but the mother of a 14-year-old victim said the suspect may have been a jealous boyfriend.

“It was a pizza and movie party,” Dennee said.

Three of the victims were Crandon High School students, said school superintendent Richard Peters, and the other three had graduated within the past three years.

Classes were cancelled in the town, which is about 360 km north of Milwaukee in an area known for logging and outdoor activities.

“There is probably nobody in Crandon who is not affected by this,” Peters said, adding that students would be especially affected.