Scott Minot Roberts was a 55-year-old White/Caucasian man from Janesville, Wisconsin, whose life ended suddenly on June 17, 2025, while he was doing something friends and relatives said was characteristic of him—helping someone who needed assistance. Roberts had grown up on his family’s farm in La Prairie Township in Rock County, graduated from Janesville Craig High School in 1988, and later earned a bachelor’s degree in Agricultural Science from the University of Wisconsin-Platteville.
He continued living on the family farm, where he raised chickens and bees and became known locally for selling eggs and honey, including at the Beloit Farmers Market.
On the morning of June 17, Roberts accompanied his girlfriend, 25-year-old Julia Katherine Cvicker, to the Aspen Square Apartments in the 2600 block of North Pontiac Drive in Janesville. Cvicker operated Guiding Hands Living Support Services, a business focused on caring for seniors and hospice patients. According to Cvicker’s obituary and a fundraiser organized by her family, she was a survivor of domestic violence who had become passionate about helping others escape abusive situations. Her family said she and Roberts had gone to help one of her employees leave an abusive relationship. Police later said one of the victims involved in the shooting had previously been in a relationship with the eventual shooter and had gone to the apartment to retrieve personal belongings.
Shortly after 11 a.m., Janesville authorities first received a report of a “family problem” at the apartment complex. A 911 report of gunfire followed, prompting officers to rush to the building. Police entered the apartment and encountered a devastating scene. Three adults had suffered fatal gunshot wounds, while a fourth person had been critically wounded. Officers immediately began life-saving treatment on the surviving victim before paramedics transported that person to a hospital. A firearm was subsequently located near one of the deceased people. Police said there were no children inside the apartment at the time, although children were elsewhere in the apartment building.
Roberts and Cvicker were among those who died at the scene. The third person pronounced dead was 21-year-old Jahvarius Wicks, who lived at the apartment. The critically injured victim was later identified as 21-year-old Haylee R. Lounsbury. Lounsbury remained hospitalized with life-threatening injuries until she died on June 23, turning what had initially been reported as three deaths and one critical injury into a four-person tragedy. Lounsbury had worked for Guiding Hands, the business operated by Cvicker.
During the early stages of the investigation, police did not publicly say which of the four people had fired the shots. They did, however, determine that the incident was a murder-suicide connected to a domestic relationship between two of the people involved. Investigators said the shooting was not believed to have been drug-related or politically motivated and that there was no continuing danger to the surrounding community.
After investigators continued reconstructing what happened, the Janesville Police Department announced on July 18, 2025, that Jahvarius Wicks had been identified as the shooter. Police concluded that Wicks shot Roberts, Cvicker and Lounsbury before shooting himself. Authorities said one of Wicks’ victims was a person with whom he had previously been in a relationship and that the person had come to the apartment to retrieve belongings. Because of the sensitive nature of the case, police declined to publicly release additional details concerning the relationships and precise sequence of events inside the apartment.
The information released by Cvicker’s family gives additional context to why Roberts was there. Roberts was not described as someone seeking a confrontation; he and Cvicker had reportedly accompanied an employee who was trying to get away from an abusive relationship. Cvicker’s family described Roberts as her generous boyfriend and said both were fatally shot while trying to help that employee. Roberts’ own obituary similarly emphasized that he died while helping someone in need, something it described as one of the things he most enjoyed doing.
There were no arrests, criminal charges, trial or conviction in Roberts’ killing because police determined that Wicks, the person responsible for shooting the three victims, died at the scene from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The case was therefore investigated as a triple homicide followed by suicide rather than a prosecution against a surviving suspect. Roberts’ death became part of a particularly tragic domestic-violence incident in which people who had reportedly gone to help someone leave a dangerous relationship were themselves caught in deadly violence.
