TOWN OF CLINTON
Authorities aren’t saying much after an apparent shootout at a rural yard party left four people with bullet wounds early Sunday in rural Clinton.
Neighbors said an outdoor party on a farm property had raged around the clock Saturday into the early-morning hours in the 9200 block of Little Lane. Rock County Sheriff’s Office authorities say a shooting broke out at 12:35 a.m. and left “numerous gunshot victims” hospitalized.
By mid-morning Sunday, police had left the scene at 9221 E. Little Lane, the only house on a cul-de-sac just northeast of the Highway 140/Interstate 43 interchange outside the village of Clinton.
That’s where authorities said the shooting happened, although law enforcement hadn’t given any details about it as of Sunday afternoon, including whether anyone has been arrested in the incident.
In a news release from the Rock County Sheriff’s Office, officials said people hurt in the shooting had “non life-threatening” injuries, and there was no continued threat to the community.
Police said three people shot early Sunday were transported to a local hospital and that a fourth person shot was later transported to Mercyhealth Hospital and Trauma Center, Janesville.
Police have not released the names of anyone involved in the shooting, and they have not asked for the public’s help identifying anyone involved in the incident.
The shooting drew a response from police departments in the village of Clinton, the Wisconsin State Patrol and the Walworth County Sheriff’s Office.
At the scene on Sunday morning, a company that had provided party services was loading up equipment and leaving as television news crews paced the lane seeking clues as to what might have happened.
One Chevrolet Equinox that a 69 reporter observed pull in and out of the residence Sunday morning had a rear driver’s side window broken and covered with a black garbage bag.
About 20 cars with a mix of Wisconsin and Illinois license plates remained at the house Sunday morning.
In the grass along the road next to the house, the ditch was littered with beer cans and discarded glow sticks. A few chickens roamed the front yard next two red portable toilets.
One woman who is a neighbor said she woke up to “yellow flashing emergency lights everywhere” about 1 a.m., at least 12 hours into a party she said had loud music almost nonstop, with “plenty of people” coming and going.
The woman said the neighbors have frequent yard parties, sometimes with loud music, but she had never seen one of the gatherings result in the kind of trouble police reported Sunday morning.
“I don’t call the cops on them for the loud music. There’s been no shootouts before now,” the woman said.
The woman, who asked to remain anonymous because of concerns over her and her family’s safety, said she didn’t hear any gunshots, but her family woke up to police fanned out across the neighborhood. Officers had out sets of high-powered mobile floodlights and other equipment, she said.
The woman showed an internal alert she obtained that she said was sent out by a local public safety official to someone she knows, then to her. It indicated multiple fire department officials had used a nearby car dealership parking lot as a staging area to deal with multiple gunshot victims.
“Unknown if suspects were at the party, or if this was a drive by. People at the party did return fire,” the alert indicated.
Police officials in charge of the sheriff’s office’s patrol and detective divisions on Sunday did not immediately return calls from a 69 reporter, and a Rock County 911 dispatcher said a sheriff’s office supervisor in the field declined to speak with The 69 on Sunday.
