‘Really nice guy’: Neighbor describes scene of Juneau County judge’s murder | Crime

That’s when the phone calls started.

Voss’ next-door neighbor, retired Juneau County Judge John Roemer, had been shot and killed in his Lisbon home by a gunman at 6:30 a.m. Roemer was 68.

Voss heard first from neighbors, then from reporters, as a massive police presence loomed outside Roemer’s home.

“My husband and I used to go down the street for our garage sales,” Voss said in an interview. “Next thing I know I got a call from Juneau County police saying we need to stay in the house, lock all the doors.”

Retired, Voss remembers Roemer as “a really nice guy”. They didn’t talk much, only to exchange words while the judge mowed his yard or walked his dogs.

“We would stop and talk and that was about it,” she said.

Roemer’s wife and one of his sons died in recent years, Voss detailed. The other two sons of the judge lived with him at home.

Voss learned from a neighbor that the judge’s sons went to the nearby home of a law enforcement officer after the shooting.

Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul confirmed at a news conference Friday that someone at Roemer’s residence fled the scene and called authorities from a neighbor’s house.

Even one of Roemer’s dogs escaped the house and was running around before a neighbor brought it into his home.

“That poor thing,” Voss said. “When I got there he was whining and whining.”

The shooter who killed Roemer had compiled a list of other potentials in what Kaul described as a “targeted act” against the justice system.

After entering the house, a police tactical unit found the shooter, 56, in Roemer’s basement with a self-inflicted gunshot wound. He was taken to hospital but is in critical condition.