PAGE 8 - INTER-COUNTY LEADER - NORTHERN CURRENTS, SECTION B - APRIL 13, 2011
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• Words from the editor •
• Joe Heller •
A difficult search for redeeming value
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• Where to write • President Barack Obama 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Washington, D.C. 20500 www.whitehouse.gov/contact/ Gov. Scott Walker Wisconsin State Capitol Madison, WI 53707 transition@wisconsin.gov
Congressman Sean Duffy (7th District) 1208 Longworth House Office Building Washington, D.C. 20510 202-225-3365
U.S. Sen. Herb Kohl 330 Hart Senate Office Bldg. Washington, D.C. 20510 715-832-8492 senator_kohl@kohl.senate.gov
Rep. Erik Severson (28th District) Room 6 North State Capitol Madison, WI 53708 608-267-2365 • 888-529-0028 FAX: 608-282-3628 rep.Severson@legis.state.wi.us Rep. Roger RIvard (75th District) State Capitol Room 307 North P.O. Box 8952, Madison, WI 608-266-2519 • 888-534-0075 rep.rivard@legis.wi.gov U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson 2 Russell Courtyard Washington, D.C. 20510 202-224-5323
Sen. Robert Jauch (25th District) Room 415 South, State Capitol P.O. Box 7882, Madison, WI 53707 Sen.Jauch@legis.state.wi.us Sen. Sheila Harsdorf (10th District) State Capitol, P.O. Box 7882 Madison, WI 53707 608-266-7745 • 715-232-1390 Toll-free - 800-862-1092 sen.harsdorf@legis.state.wi.us
Rep. Nick Milroy (73rd District) Room 8 North, State Capitol P.O. Box 8953, Madison 53708 rep.milroy@legis.state.wi.us
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T H E
It’s still not clear what kind of stars aligned over northwestern Wisconsin 20 years ago this month. If you described them as horrific, few would likely argue. Within the span of a few days in April of 1991, seven people died by gunfire in Burnett and Polk counties. An eighth person was critically wounded. Longtime area residents are familiar with the two separate events involved. The first, a standoff between police and a troubled young man on a quiet residential street in Webster, a block from the elementary school, on April 19. The second was the shooting of five members of a family at a rural trailer home on Evergreen Avenue near Cushing. Again, the crime involved a troubled young man - and in its aftermath, a misguided stepbrother. For two weeks, those two teenagers were the only ones who knew a crime had been committed or the exact date it occurred - April 22. Many of us today have become a bit numb when it comes to news of violence and senseless killing. And it may sound insensitive to the rest of the world, but most of us are thankful for the lack of that type of news here, despite almost every type of violent crime occurring at least once in our communities since the aforementioned crimes. Is there any redeeming value in dredging up stories of violence in 1991, or is it just another marking of time? In the case of the Webster shooting, there is the inspirational story of Deputy Mike Severson’s journey in the months and years following the shooting. Still holding the title of deputy, Severson has not allowed a life in a wheelchair to prevent him from sharing his life on several occasions: his recovery in a Colorado hospital, being recognized nationally for his bravery, speaking with school children on numerous occasions, hunting for deer from a wheelchair and designing a memorial statue for fallen officers. Our Currents feature this week tells that story and updates our readers on Deputy Severson’s life. In the case of the young student from St. Croix Falls who was convicted of killing his family, finding redeeming value is much more complex. There are the thoughtprovoking arguments on the alleged child abuse aspect of the case and what we’ve learned - if anything - from this senseless act. Now in his mid-30s, Bruce Brenizer will be eligible for parole in 2018. He was just 15 years old when he used a deer rifle to shoot his father, Rick Brenizer, 35; his livein girlfriend Ruth Berentson, 31; their daughter, Crystal, 5, and Berentson's daughters Heidi, 10, and Mindy, 7. The young girls were tied up before being shot execution style, from behind. Bruce told authorities he saw himself as the “ice-cream vendor,” doing the young girls a favor by ending their lives. They would have no one to care for them, he thought, having just slain their parents. He sat stoic during his court appearances, his head down, appearing disinterested. But out of the view of the jury and court, he was semi-talkative, and one officer who was assigned to guard him said Bruce caught a view of the TV satellite trucks out of the courthouse window one day and asked the officer if he (Bruce) would be back in his cell by 5 p.m. That was up to the judge, the officer said. “I hope so,” Bruce said. “I’d like to see myself on TV.” It was an example of the maturity level of the youth who was tried as an adult and ended up being declared “legally insane” and sentenced to life in prison. “Throw him in prison and throw away the key,” the mother of the woman killed and grandmother of the three little girls, told the court. And survivors of the victims were outraged, one saying there was not evidence of physical abuse to Bruce. While Bruce said little, his stepbrother did a lot of talking in exchange for immunity. He told authorities the location of the pond where the murder weapon was recovered and about the April evening he and Bruce drove separate vehicles down Evergreen Avenue, three miles away, to a secluded wooded spot that would become known as the burn site. On the way, as darkness fell, one of the vehicles, the family station wagon with five bodies in the back, kept stalling and they had to jump-start it, leaving surviving family members with another disturbing image to process. There have been few updates in Bruce’s life since he was incarcerated, but given the scope of the crime and the headlines it produced around the world, it didn’t take much on his part to trigger notice. It began in 1995 when Bruce wrote a letter to the editor to the Wisconsin State Journal, which said in part: "I am frankly disgusted with the sloppy and sensationalistic reporting that appears in your paper ... You are correct in suggesting that I was responsible for the death of my father, his live-in girlfriend and her three children. But I was never charged with the murder of my halfbrother as you reported. That is the trouble with you tabloid journalists, the facts are just not important to you." The following year a reporter from the same newspaper told of seeing Brenizer and another patient being escorted to a movie, prompting Mendota Mental Health Institute to no longer allow patients with histories of violence to be escorted to bowling alleys, movie theaters or shopping malls. A few years later, a young woman from St. Croix Falls who became a noted writer paid Bruce a visit at Mendota and wrote about it for a small chapter in a book she published. Last year, a TV network filmed a story about the murders, interviewing, among others, an investigator and key prosecutor in the case. And about the same time, Brenizer showed up on a social page he had joined online. The photo of himself showing a well-groomed man, sans the glasses he wore the last time the public saw him, smiling confidently. He listed his musical interests and there was one other small note at the bottom of the page - about his support for the fight against child abuse. An inquiry about Bruce and his life in prison was understandably met with caution by his lawyer, who said she would talk with her client about the possibility of an interview. Her e-mail contained the following sentence: “Childhood trauma and abuse has influence on perception and as a result action.” Aside from the aforementioned surfacings, that’s as close as we’ll likely come to understanding Bruce’s state of mind at this time. And some readers will balk - some may find a spark of hope. Others may find redemption in a prayer of remembrance for the innocent lives lost 20 years ago, including three young girls who huddled together in their final moments here onEarth.
I N T E R - C O U N T Y
Editorials by Gary King
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