Local

MADISON–WTS Paradigm CEO Nate Herbst spoke publicly for the first time since an employee opened fire on his coworkers on Sept. 19, at a press conference at the State Capitol on the morning of Sept. 25.

“It will take time for our WTS family to fully recover and heal, but we are thankful to have the support of each other and the community as a whole,” Herbst said. “We will find the strength to recover and move forward.”

Herbst acknowledged the three victims who were injured in the shooting. 

“Our thoughts are with our three employees injured last week,” Herbst said. “They continue the recovery process. The good news is two are recovering at home and the third, while recovering in the hospital, is doing well and this is great news.”

MIDDLETON–In documents released on Sept 21, new details came out about Anthony Tong, the man shot and killed by police as he wielded a gun at WTS Paradigm, where he was employed, on the morning of Sept. 19. Tong shot four co-workers at the software company, 1850 Deming Way, three critically, and the fourth receiving a minor injury.

The search warrant for Tong’s home at 9738 Gilded Cider Blvd. turned up a pellet gun, gun parts, gun building tools and a stockpile of hundreds of rounds of ammunition. In addition, Tong, 43, was in possession of tactical equipment, including three ballistics vest and helmet. The warrant was made public on Friday, and also states that one of Tong’s coworkers was shot 10 times. 

According to an affidavit from the Sioux Falls, SD Police Department from an incident that occurred on Aug. 11, 2004, Tong should not have been in possession of weapons at all because his concealed carry permit was revoked by a judge.

The Dane County Medical Examiner’s office Thursday identified a Madison man as the person who shot four co-workers Wednesday at WTS Paradigm before law enforcement fatally shot him.

An autopsy identified Anthony Y. Tong, 43, as the shooter. Preliminary results confirmed that he died from firearm-related trauma. He was pronounced dead shortly after arriving Wednesday at a local hospital. Additional testing was underway Thursday afternoon.

Middleton Police Chief Charles Foulke has consistently identified the shooter as a Madison man and that a residence in southwest Madison was searched and items seized apparently linked Tong to the offense.

The address searched was reported in the 9700 block of Watts Dr. Madison.

Law enforcement believes that Tong acted alone as there are no indications that anyone else was involved in the incident, Foulke said.

All are invited to the annual service of the historic First Lutheran Church, located at the corner of Old Sauk and Pleasant View Roads scheduled for Sept. 16 at 2 p.m. Pastor Doug Locken, Peace Lutheran Church of Waunakee will lead the service.  A memorial service is held each year in memory of the religious faith of the early farm families who immigrated to the area between 1840-50 and made Middleton their home.

The old white church, known when it was built as “the big white church on the hillside” was erected in 1866. It replaced a log chapel built by early German immigrants in 1854 to the north on Pleasant View Road where an old cemetery still sits on the hillside.  The current building was abandoned in 1947 after many of the congregation chose services at the new St. Luke's in Middleton. It sat empty and derelict until the Lutheran synod gave it to the community in the 1970's and was restored through local effort.  It now serves the area as a historic site. 

MIDDLETON–Young artists can express themselves in an after-school program offered at elementary schools in Middleton, and around Dane County, as part of Young Rembrandts. The class teaches drawing with colored pencil and marker, crayons for the younger kids, and meets once a week, immediately after the end of the regular school day. The six-week class is available for preschool (3 1/2 to five years) and elementary (five to 12 years) students.

“It is purely focused in the skill of drawing,” said Karen Brown, owner of the Young Rembrandts franchise in Madison. “There is just nothing else like it. We really teach children how to by break it down line by line and object by object. That’s how I taught Georgia (her 11-year-old daughter), line by line.”

MIDDLETON–Driving rain and claps of thunder couldn’t dampen the spirits of local government officials and representatives of Miramont Behavioral Health as they held a groundbreaking to kick off the construction of 60,000 square foot mental health care facility.

Mike Garone, director of development at Strategic Behavioral Health, Miramont parent company, thanked the City of Middleton for recognizing the need to address mental health concerns in the community at the Aug. 9 event. “It didn’t take us long to see the need for mental health services in Dane County,” he said. The 72-bed hospital offers inpatient care for children, adults and the elderly, including drug addiction services. 

Dane County Board of Supervisors Chair Sharon Corrigan spoke and echoed Garone’s sentiments of the need for care and added, “We need the community to work together to find the gaps in our system.

MIDDLETON–Scott Kirkpatrick remembers getting in his car on the morning of July 1, 2017 to go to Weight Watchers. That would be the last thing the Middleton man would remember of the month of July.

Scott had a massive heart attack while driving and was doing 80 mph down Gammon Road near West Towne. Video cameras showed the car speeding down the busy street and turning sharply to avoid a head-on collision, instead, barely clipping another car before smashing into a tree.

“I have been a Christian my whole life, and I truly believe someone was in the car with me that day that turned the wheel,” he speculated.

When emergency personnel arrived on the scene, they had to extract Scott from the vehicle using the Jaws of Life. Scott appeared conscious and was talking to EMTs when they arrived. They rushed him to the hospital and had to revive him twice with a defibrillator.

Pardeep Singh Kaleka’s father, Satwant Singh Kaleka, came to the United States with $35 in his pocket. 

He clawed and scraped his way toward that pinnacle of goals, the American Dream. On his 65th birthday, he took joy in the fact that he was eligible for Social Security, seeing it as his adopted homeland’s recognition of his contributions and hard work over the years. He liked to spend time at the gurudwara (Sikh temple) he managed and had helped build.

Then, on August 5, 2012 a 40-year-old white supremacist and U.S. Army veteran named Wade Michael Page walked into the gurudwara in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, and gunned him down along with five other worshipers, in cold blood. 

“It was kind of like my father was being told he didn’t qualify for the American Dream,” says the victim’s son.

“It’s a very interesting thing, as a writer, to be invisible,” muses celebrated poet Fabu Carter. “It is strange, because writing propels you into the world.”

Led by Fabu and fellow authors Catrina Sparkman and Sherry Lucille, an upcoming event at the Middleton Public Library called “Hidden Voices” will bring three vital 20^th century literary figures - Jean Toomer, Lorraine Hansberry, and Sarah Webster Fabio – into the spotlight. 

They hope to raise the voices of these writers from the past. They think in doing so, they can inspire readers to seek out the Midwest’s fresh new African American authors today, as well.

Sparkman believes a good author can transcend barriers such as race and gender. Or bring them tumbling down.