Mystery Surrounds Fatal Shooting Of Newlyweds In Wisconsin Bar
Police identified a person of interest in the mysterious fatal shooting of a newlywed Wisconsin couple at a sports bar Thursday that hasleft residents of their tight-knit community on edge.
Gina Weingart, 37, and her husband, Emerson Weingart, 33, were killed after a shooter opened fire inside Sports Page Barr in downtown Elkhorn just after midnight on Feb. 1, authorities said.
Gina and Emerson Weingart were fatally shot together at a sports bar in Elkhorn.
Gina Weingart was a part-time bartender at the bar, and her husband kept her company during her shift on Wednesday nights, relatives told WISN 12 News.
Officers from the Elkhorn Police Department and Walworth County Sheriff’s Office responded to a call of shots fired at 12:11 a.m. Thursdayand found the bodies of the couple inside, authorities said in a statement released that same day. It is unclear who made the call or whether anyone else was in the bar at the time of the shooting.
Authorities have since identified a “person of interest” in the double homicide, Elkhorn Police Chief Joel Christensen said Monday night in a statement shared with HuffPost. That person has been “taken custody on an unrelated matter,” Christensen said.
Christensen added that no additional information would be released at this time but urged anyone with information regarding the shooting to contact the Walworth County Sheriff’s Office.
Jordan Barr, the owner of Sports Page Barr, called the shooting a “horrific tragedy” in a post on the bar’s Facebook pageand said the couple were “already a part of the family” before he offered Gina Weingart the part-time job.
“The Sports Page Barr staff and regulars have always been more than a tight knit group, a family. Before Gina joined our staff, her and Emerson started coming in and very quickly became close with all of us, staff and patrons alike,” Barr said.
The shooting was “a despicable act of violence that has shaken all of us to our core,” he added.
Gina and Emerson Weingart started dating in 2020 and married in June last year, according to a joint obituary.
Gina Weingart studied dance and performed throughout her childhood and high school. She worked for a contact lens distributor in addition to her bartending job.
“She enjoyed dancing and art. She was a very social person and loved people,” the obituary said. “When she walked into a room, by the end of the day, she would know everyone. She had a beautiful smile that would light up a room.”
Emerson Weingart, an avid fisherman, graduated from the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse and worked as a department manager at a Kroger store.
“Fishing was his passion, and his wife Gina was his side kick on many adventures, learning all his tricks,” the obituary said.
The Weingarts, seen in this picture from 2022, had been married less than eight months when they were killed.
One of Gina Weingart’s high school friends, Julianne Perkins, has organized a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for funeral costs. Friends of the couple have donated to the campaign’s $10,000 goal as well as left touching messages remembering the pair.
“This world is darker without you in it,” a friend said about the two, while one of Gina Weingart’s high school classmates said that she was “a beautiful soul” who “always lit up the stage dancing and performing.”
Elizabeth Krause, the owner of a salon next door to the bar where a bullet was also found, told WISN the shooting was “alarming.”
“This is really quite a quiet community and really a small-town America,” Krause said.
Funeral services for the couple are scheduled for Feb. 10 in Burlington, Wisconsin.
