Inset: Roland Schmidt (Schaumburg police). Background: Hotel in Schaumburg, Illinois, where Schmidt allegedly killed his daughter-in-law (WLS/YouTube).
Weddings are generally events filled with joy, but an incident in Illinois turned tragic when a man reportedly shot his daughter-in-law, motivated by anger over her impending divorce from his son, according to police reports.
Police officers from Schaumburg, a suburb near Chicago, received a call around 10:15 p.m. on Friday. They arrived at the Marriott located on North Martingale Road and found a woman in the parking lot, who had been shot in the head, as described in a press release. Emergency medical teams transported her to the hospital, but she succumbed to her injuries.
Cops found that a citizen had subdued the alleged shooter, identified as 76-year-old Roland Schmidt; they also collected the gun. Detectives determined Schmidt was at a wedding held at the hotel along with his daughter-in-law, 45-year-old Christine Moyer of Ohio. As Moyer was leaving the event, cops say Schmidt followed her outside and shot her in the head.
“Through the investigation, it was discovered Schmidt was upset with Moyer over divorce paperwork which was filed against his son,” cops report.
Schmidt, of Stillman Valley, which is some 13 miles southwest of Rockford, is now facing a first-degree murder charge, cops say. Cops took him to the Cook County Jail. He”s set to face a judge on Monday.
Flory Sommers had just walked inside the hotel with her friends when the shooting occurred.
“I was inside by the ATM and I heard some people calling ‘gunshot!’ and then the manager said ‘was there a gunshot,’ and he said he was calling the ambulance, and then I just saw people move quickly to the elevator to the lobby,” Sommers told local Fox affiliate WFLD.
