In the early morning hours of November 5, 2004, a tragic and unforeseen act of violence cut short the life of Anton Uebelhoer, a 43-year-old male business traveler from Regensburg, Germany. Uebelhoer was a guest at the Comfort Suites hotel in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, staying in a room adjacent to where a violent domestic dispute would tragically spill out into the hotel hallway.
He worked for the packaging manufacturer Krones AG, which had a subsidiary in the nearby city of Franklin.
The incident began inside a third-floor hotel room where 25-year-old Gregg Phillips, a man from Milwaukee, was with his 23-year-old girlfriend, Sandra Wisniewski. Phillips, who had been released from prison just a few months prior, accused Wisniewski of revealing his location to men who owed him money. In a fit of rage, and armed with a submachine gun while wearing body armor, Phillips shot and killed her. He then exited the room and began firing indiscriminately in the hallway.
Anton Uebelhoer, an innocent bystander, became an unintended victim of Phillips' rampage. As the gunfire erupted, Uebelhoer was fatally shot. The violence did not end there; two other hotel guests were also injured during the chaos. One man was wounded in the hallway, and a woman was hit by a bullet that pierced through the door of her room. Both of these victims were transported to a local hospital and were reported to be in stable condition.
Following the shootings, Phillips took a man from the Chicago area hostage in his own hotel room. A tense standoff ensued, during which Phillips contacted a local television station. The station transferred his call to the police, initiating negotiations. After approximately 30 minutes, Phillips surrendered to a SWAT team and was taken into custody. In April of 2005, Gregg Phillips was convicted for the murders of Anton Uebelhoer and Sandra Wisniewski. He received two consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole, ensuring he would remain imprisoned for his deadly actions that night. The senseless act of violence left behind a grieving family, including Uebelhoer's wife and five-year-old twins.
