Suspect in killing of Wisconsin judge reportedly had Mitch McConnell on his 'hit list'

NEW LISBON, Wis. – Jim Barnier was leaving for work early Friday when he saw officers — their weapons drawn — and about a half dozen law enforcement vehicles outside his neighbor’s house.

One was wielding a rifle and standing behind a tree.

Barnier called his wife, Chris, from the car to tell her. It was the home of John “Jack” Roemer, a former Juneau County circuit judge whom he described as “one of those neighbors you’d always want” — a nice man who always made sure to wave when he saw the Barniers pass by on the way out of their leafy subdivision.

A nightmare was unfolding in a quiet corner of Wisconsin.

Roemer was shot in a targeted killing, and the 56-year-old alleged gunman was discovered in the basement of the judge's home with a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Suspect Douglas K. Uhde reportedly had 'hit list' of politicians, including Gov. Evers 

The state Department of Justice on Saturday identified him as Douglas K. Uhde. He remains in critical condition, according to the department.

Neighbors and authorities were still trying to put the pieces together Saturday about what happened and why.

More: Here's what we know about the targeted killing of retired Juneau County Judge John Roemer in the town of New Lisbon

ABC News reported that when a SWAT team entered the home, the judge was found zip-tied to a chair.  A so-called "hit list" was found in the suspect's vehicle with names that included Gov. Tony Evers, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Evers, at a Milwaukee appearance Saturday, declined to comment on an active investigation.

"A judge from a rural county is targeted and murdered. It's abhorrent to our judiciary and to leadership in a state and a country. So yeah, it's a horrible situation. I grieve for him, I grieve for his family.  And God ... we can do better than this in Wisconsin.

"Whether I was on that list or not on the list, nothing is stopping me from doing this job."

Investigation ongoing, Wisconsin attorney general says

Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul said Saturday that "the investigation continues so we are going to continue to look into the facts."

Speaking in Green Bay, Kaul told reporters "we are not aware of any evidence right now that indicates there is an active threat to people’s safety. We did, however, notify the people who were identified as being potential targets. And if we get further information that indicates there’s additional danger to any specific individual or to the public we will make sure to notify them."

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Kaul said Friday that the victim was targeted and that the assailant appeared to be targeting others. Kaul did not provide names.

"So far the information that's been gathered indicates that it was a targeted act and the targeting was based on some sort of court case or court cases," Kaul said during Friday's news conference.

Juneau County officials remember Judge John Roemer 

Juneau County District Attorney Kenneth Hamm said Saturday he was unaware of any specific threats made against Roemer.

Hamm declined to provide any other information about the investigation, but he praised Roemer as an “incredibly fair” judge who was friendly with everyone.

“He’s a guy who would talk to anybody, he’d have time for anybody,” Hamm said.

Angela Kujak, the family court commissioner in Juneau County, called Roemer’s death unnerving, shocking and sad. She called him a “very great man” who was a mentor to all attorneys, treated everyone fairly and had a great sense of humor.

Kujak said she had no particular reason to think anyone would target Roemer, but said she “unfortunately” could understand why someone would target a judge in general.

“Judges have a very tough job and you have to make tough decisions and a lot of times people aren’t happy with those decisions,” she said. “It’s concerning. It’s scary. I appreciate that the courthouses I work in have great court security and that’s been a priority in many counties. But, of course, this happened in his home.”

Shots fired inside New Lisbon home 

The incident unfolded early Friday with the Juneau County Sheriff's Office receiving a call around 6:30 a.m. about an armed person in a New Lisbon home where two shots had been fired. Scanner traffic indicated the call may have come from one of the judge's sons who had raced to a nearby residence.

The Juneau County Special Tactics and Response Team attempted to negotiate with the armed man and entered the house about 10:15 a.m., or nearly four hours after law enforcement was first contacted.

Chris Barnier and her daughter glimpsed the emergency, watching from the corner as a SWAT team assembled outside Roemer's house and someone yelled over a bullhorn over and over again, “Come out with your hands up.”

“We didn’t know the protocol, but they did that for hours,” she said. “We were kind of like, ‘Why are they waiting?’”

At about 9:30 a.m., the Barniers received a call from law enforcement telling them to shelter in place.

Chris didn’t know what was going on, but several possible scenarios ran through her head. She wondered whether it had anything to do with her neighbor’s former position as a judge.

At one point, an ambulance arrived and someone on a stretcher was whisked away, she said. Then one of Roemer’s dogs escaped from the house, looking “petrified,” and ran into the neighborhood. Her daughter brought the dog — “howling up in the air, crying” — to their house where they tried to comfort it.

“It’s just a sad, sad, sad situation. I can’t believe this happened in our neighborhood,” she said.

Roemer's house is located in a small, leafy neighborhood in the middle of a patch of woods off a two-lane road north of Mauston. The judge's house is near the mouth of the entrance to the neighborhood.

On Saturday, police tape still surrounded the property and a few law enforcement vehicles were parked out front. A state trooper blocked entry to the neighborhood for all except authorized law enforcement and residents. Even the mailman had been turned away on Friday.

Roemer had lived in the neighborhood at least since the Barniers moved into their house about 25 years ago. They didn’t know each other very well but they described him as extremely friendly. Jim would sometimes be in Roemer’s courtroom when he worked as a ranger with the state DNR. He said as a judge, Roemer tried to put people at ease and would try to relate to them.

“He was extremely down-to-earth in the courtroom,” Jim said. “I really respected him as a judge.”

Issac Yu and Molly Beck contributed from Milwaukee; Kevin Dittman of the Appleton Post-Crescent contributed from Green Bay.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Sen. Mitch McConnell on hit list of suspect who killed Wisconsin judge