Gunman kills at least three people in second shooting in Milwaukee suburb

Suspect Radcliffe Franklin Haughton was later found dead (AP)

A second Milwaukee suburb was shaken by a Sunday morning shooting that left at least four dead – including the gunman – and four injured, only months after a man shot six people dead at a nearby Sikh temple.

Yesterday's shooting in Brookfield, some 20 miles from the Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, occurred at around 11am. The gunman, an ex-Marine identified as Radcliffe Franklin Haughton, 45, from the Milwaukee suburb of Brown Deer, was later found dead at the scene of the shooting, a spa and salon complex near the Brookfield Square Mall. Haughton had killed himself, Brookfield police chief Dan Tushaus said. Seven people were said to have been transferred to local hospitals, four with non-critical wounds. Bomb squads dealt with what was described as an improvised explosive device found at the site.

Authorities said the attack was believed to have been motivated by a domestic dispute. The gunman may have been targeting his estranged wife, who was reported to be an employee at the salon. She is said to have taken out a restraining order against him.

The suspect's father, Radcliffe Haughton Sr, said he had not seen his son since last year.

He did, however, speak to him on the phone from time to time, most recently a couple of days ago, after a court hearing.

One witness reported seeing a woman apparently fleeing from the gunman earlier in the morning.

David Gosh, of nearby West Allis, saw the woman running out into the main road by the spa. "She ran right out into the street and was pounding on cars," Mr Gosh said.

The shooting, the latest in a number of killings across the United States in recent years, is the second such incident in the area in less than three months. On Sunday 5 August, a gunman, later identified by authorities as 40-year-old Wade Michael Page, stalked through the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin in Oak Creek, killing six people, in what was described as a hate-crime. He committed suicide.

The month before, in July, 12 people were killed after a mass shooting at a movie theatre in Aurora, near the city of Denver, Colorado. The sole suspect, James Eagon Holmes, was arrested outside the theatre soon afterwards.