The headline and top of this post were updated at 1:50 p.m. ET.
Wade Michael Page, the 40-year-old man killed by police at the scene of Sunday's shooting rampage at a Sikh temple near Milwaukee who authorities say gunned down six people and wounded three others, was referred to in a report the FBI received about six years ago, NPR's Dina Temple-Raston says.
Dina said earlier on Morning Edition and on the NPR Newscast that Page had "popped up on the FBI's radar." She now adds some details: Page was mentioned in a report about someone else. But sources with knowledge of the investigation tell her that the FBI never opened a formal investigation because Page didn't appear to be a threat.
The Los Angeles Times, which is also on the story, says that while agents looked into whether Page might have been providing funds to a domestic group, they concluded there wasn't enough evidence to open a formal investigation.
Our original post continues:
The Times says it has been told by a "senior law enforcement official" that the FBI "looked at" Page more than once.
We learned Monday about Page's possible ties to white supremacist groups and that he was a member of a "hate rock" band known as End Apathy. Today, Milwaukee's Journal Sentinel reports that in the weeks before Sunday's attack Page's "odd behavior did not go unnoticed." The newspaper writes that:
"He wore his beliefs on his arm, along with his hate.
"He called non-whites 'dirt people,' and sent roses to his grandmother. ...
"To psychiatric nurse Jennifer Dunn, the 40-year-old with the shaved head was merely the 'creepy quiet' neighbor who moved into her Cudahy building three weeks ago, toting his belongings in two black plastic garbage bags."
Meanwhile, Dina reports that authorities in Wisconsin have spoken to and cleared the man they described Monday as a "person of interest." He had been seen using a cellphone to take video of the scene outside the Oak Creek, Wis., temple after Sunday's shootings.
And the Journal Sentinel writes that a former Oak Creek police chief says he isn't surprised to hear that Lt. Brian Murphy — who was shot eight to nine times after he arrived at the temple — told his fellow officers to help others before helping him. Murphy "is in critical condition at Froedtert Hospital in Wauwatosa," the newspaper says.
Dina also rounded up the latest news about the Sikh temple shooting earlier today on Morning Edition.
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.
