Sheriff: Gunman traded texts with woman he later killed

A Wisconsin man who carried out two-weekend attacks that killed four people, including three of his family members, traded text messages with the woman he killed who wasn’t related to him and who apparently didn’t know him, authorities said Tuesday.

Investigators believe Ritchie German Jr. fatally shot his 66-year-old mother, Bridget German, 32-year-old brother, Douglas German, and his brother’s 8-year-old son, Calvin Harris, at their Lafayette townhouse Sunday. Chippewa County Sheriff James Kowalczyk said. He then went to a home in nearby Lake Hallie and killed a 24-year-old woman and wounded her parents, said Kowalczyk, who declined to release the names of the woman and her parents, deferring to police in Lake Hallie.

German Jr. then took his own life in that family’s Lake Hallie home, Kowalczyk said.

Kowalczyk told The Associated Press that Ritchie German Jr. had texted the woman inquiring about a personal relationship, but that she texted back “who is this? I don’t know you.” He said there’s no evidence yet that they had ever met.

Ritchie German Jr. occasionally lived with the family members he killed in Lafayette, Kowalczyk said, describing him as “a loner and drifter” who was often unemployed. Investigators haven’t established a motive for the killings, he said.

The attacker’s father, Ritchie German Sr., told the Star Tribune that he was shocked to learn of the killings and that his son Ritchie had struggled with mental illness. He said his son lived with him from 2005 to 2014 and worked for just one year during that time, at a Menards warehouse. He said his son stayed in his bedroom most of that time.