A man from Wisconsin has been taken into custody and charged with attempted murder following a shooting incident that injured his relative and his 2-year-old granddaughter.
According to a criminal complaint, 65-year-old Pao Lee approached the adult victim in the kitchen of a business in Sheboygan around 10 a.m. on September 5. Initially, they exchanged greetings as the victim was assisting his granddaughter with getting milk, reported by WITI. The complaint details that Lee then pulled out a gun from his waistband and aimed it at the victim’s face.
The document states that the victim recalled Lee making a threat, saying something like, “you want to die today?”. The victim recalled trying to grab the gun to point it upwards and then heard several gunshots.
The victim and another person wrestled the gun away from Lee and “threw it against a tree” and asked someone to call 911.
When police arrived, they found both the victim and his granddaughter injured. Witnesses had restrained Lee. The police retrieved the gun where witnesses claimed to have thrown it and discovered a fired 9mm cartridge, a fired bullet, and damage to the wood frame of a door in the kitchen. Additionally, there was a bullet hole in a nearby office wall.
In an interview, Lee told detectives he had found messages on his wife’s phone from the victim and said the messages were “sexual in nature.”
The complaint states that Lee confessed to planning to kill the victim and then commit suicide. He told officers his attempt was thwarted because he believed his gun malfunctioned.
“He said he did not know that he shot the baby,” the complaint says.
Investigators reported that Lee’s wife denied any marital unfaithfulness and mentioned having a quarrel with Lee a week before the shooting after he accused her of having an affair with the victim.
Police said the toddler, who was shot in the chest, is expected to recover. She was airlifted to Children’s Wisconsin in Milwaukee, WISN reported.
Lee has been charged with reckless injury as well as attempted murder.
