On a seemingly ordinary Saturday, the 12th of March, 2005, the life of 15-year-old Bart Oliver, a White male, was tragically cut short in what should have been a place of peace. He was attending a weekly Sabbath service for the Living Church of God, held within a conference room at a Sheraton hotel in Brookfield, Wisconsin. The sermon had already begun when the tranquility of the gathering was shattered by a member of their own congregation.
Terry Ratzmann, a 44-year-old computer
technician, entered the room and, without a word, began firing a 9mm handgun into the crowd of 50 to 60 attendees. The rapid succession of shots created a scene of chaos and terror as worshippers screamed and desperately sought cover. Amid the violence, a friend of the gunman reportedly called out his name, pleading with him to stop, but the pleas went unheeded. Ratzmann fired 22 rounds in about a minute, even reloading his weapon during the assault.
The violent outburst claimed the lives of seven individuals, including the church's minister and his teenage son. Bart Oliver was among those fatally wounded in the indiscriminate attack. Four other people were injured before Ratzmann turned the gun on himself, ending his own life at the scene. The motive for the horrific act was believed to be a combination of factors; investigators learned that Ratzmann was on the verge of losing his job and had been deeply upset by a sermon he had heard two weeks prior to the shooting.
Because the perpetrator took his own life at the scene of the crime, there were no arrests to be made in the case. The suspect was Terry Ratzmann himself. Police who searched his home found no suicide note, but they did discover encrypted files on his computers which they hoped would shed more light on his state of mind. The community was left to mourn the senseless loss of life, including that of a young boy who had just been beginning his.
