Larry Gardner Madison, WI 11/21/07

[Mysticalmom]

Men Sought In South Side Killing
Man Fatally Shot At Cypress Way Apartments

The Capital Times :: METRO :: C1
Friday, November 23, 2007
By STEVEN ELBOW The Capital Times
Madison police today were continuing their search for two men they believe were involved in a south side shooting that left a man dead.

"They seem to be the focus of the investigation right now, those two," Lt. Wayne Strong said today. "That's what we're going with right now."

Police were called to Apartment 17 at 2209 Cypress Way in the Oakridge Apartments complex shortly after 9 p.m. Wednesday for a report of gunfire. Officers arrived to find Larry R. Gardner, 56, who had suffered a single gunshot. He was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Strong said Gardner is a Madison resident, but didn't live at the apartment where he was killed.

The two men police were looking for were described as black, between 18 and 20 years old. One was 6 foot 5, with very light skin, wearing a dark winter jacket with cartoon characters on it. The second man was 6 feet tall, with facial hair, possibly a goatee, wearing dark clothing.

Strong said police couldn't release any information about what may have prompted the shooting because the investigation was in its early stages.

He said investigators didn't know the identity of the men they were seeking.

"We just have the descriptions that we gave out," he said. "We're still trying to figure out who those two individuals are, but at this point we don't know."

Strong said he knows of no recent problems at the apartment.

The shooting comes at the end of a year of rising concerns about crime in Madison, which prompted a series of public meetings where residents expressed frustration with illegal activities in their neighborhoods. In response to those concerns and a perception of increasing violence in the downtown area, city officials have added funding for 30 new police officers in next year's budget.

Those neighborhood meetings were sparked by the July slaying of 26-year-old Kevin Cobbins in front of a duplex at 1305 Loreen Drive, near Hammersley Road on the city's west side. The suspect in that case, James P. Bohanan, 34, remains at large.

[Mysticalmom]

http://www.madison.com/archives/read.php?ref=/wsj/2007/11/24/0711240017.php

Murder Is No Threat To Public
So Say Madison Police As They Seek Two Suspects In A Cypress Way Killing.

Wisconsin State Journal :: FRONT :: A1
Saturday, November 24, 2007
By KAREN RIVEDAL krivedal@madison.com 608-252-6106
Even as they continued looking for two men in the fatal shooting of another man Wednesday on the South Side, Madison police on Friday said they don't believe the public is in danger.

"The statement we got from the person who reported it said (the victim) was being targeted," Sgt. Christine Boyd said. "We don't believe there's a safety risk to the community. It wasn't totally random."

The Dane County coroner's office on Friday identified the victim as Larry R. Gardner, 56, of Madison. He was shot once at Oakridge Apartments, 2209 Cypress Way, inside apartment 17. Police said Gardner, who was pronounced dead at the hospital, did not live at the apartment.

Police believe the shooting occurred about 8:30 p.m., although the call to police about shots being fired at the apartment didn't come in until 9:12 p.m.

The two men being sought were described as black and between the ages of 18 to 20. One is about 6 feet 5 with very light skin, last seen wearing a dark winter jacket with cartoon characters on it, police said. The other is about 6 feet tall with facial hair or a goatee, wearing all dark clothing.

Anyone with information about the case is asked to call Madison police at 266-4275 or Crime Stoppers at 266-6014.

Police have released no information about how or why the shooting occurred, citing the need to protect the ongoing investigation.

There was no indication of police activity outside the tidy, two-story apartment building on Friday afternoon, and the complex itself was quiet, with few tenants outside the building or neighboring buildings in the chilly weather.

Neighbors on Thursday said several people who didn't live in the apartment where the shooting occurred had been seen coming and going in recent weeks.

Landlord shocked Oakridge Apartments' owner Stefan Varo was working in the complex's rental office on Friday and said he was as shocked as anyone to hear about the killing.

"I was very surprised," Varo said, calling the apartment complex generally safe. "We don't have any problems, not even with that tenant (who lives in unit 17)."

Varo said that tenant, a man whom he declined to name, had talked to the police but was not arrested. He said the tenant has lived in the apartment for three years and was staying at a hotel until police finish their work there.

Varo said police have not shared any information with him about the investigation, adding he had "not the slightest idea" what prompted it. (more at link)

[Mysticalmom]

http://www.madison.com/archives/read.php?ref=/tct/2007/11/28/0711280353.php
Sketches Of Shooting Suspects Released
The Capital Times :: METRO :: B1
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
By HANNAH YOUNG Correspondent for
The Capital Times Sketches of two men suspected of being involved in a fatal south side shooting last week were released Tuesday by the Madison Police Department.

Although they remain unnamed, these men are wanted for questioning in the killing of Madison resident Larry R. Gardner, 56, inside Oakridge Apartments at 2209 Cypress Way around 9 p.m. Nov. 21.

Both of the suspects are described as 18 to 20 years old. The taller of the two was reportedly wearing a dark winter jacket with cartoon characters on it.

Police found Gardner suffering from a single gunshot wound after they responded to a call of gunfire at the apartment complex. Gardner was taken to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Gardner did not live at the apartment where he was killed, and police have not said why he was there or what might have prompted the shooting.

The police urge anyone with information regarding the case to call 266-4275 or Crime Stoppers at 266-6014.

[Mysticalmom]

http://www.madison.com/archives/read.php?ref=/tct/2007/12/07/0712070330.php

Madison police are still looking for a woman considered to be a person of interest in the Larry Gardner homicide investigation. But they have cleared a man who also was questioned and released Thursday night.

The two - Shari L. Broughton, 35, and Napoleon Lee Elvord, 53 - also were not involved in what police called a standoff on the city's west side that ended quietly Thursday evening. Four people inside the house on Doncaster Drive were questioned and released, also in connection with the Gardner slaying.

Gardner, 56, was fatally shot at an apartment on Cypress Way on the city's south side Nov. 21.

Detectives were informed Thursday morning that people with knowledge about the slaying were at a residence in the 4200 block of Doncaster, which is north of the Beltline just west of Seminole Highway.

"The people inside the house didn't want to come out when detectives knocked on the door, so the police Emergency Response Team was called in," said police spokesman Joel DeSpain.

While the situation was called a standoff, there were no shots fired, no weapons were found inside the house and no arrests were made.

"Two people came out shortly after the team arrived, the other two around 5:15 p.m.," DeSpain said. "It ended well, ended peacefully."

Broughton is described as black, 5-foot-9 and 130 pounds.

DeSpain said no motive has been determined in Gardner's death, but police are not ruling out anything at this time.

"It was a targeted situation and not a random crime," DeSpain said.

Anyone with information on the Gardner slaying can call police investigators at 266-4275 or Crime Stoppers at 266-6014.

[Mysticalmom]

http://www.madison.com/archives/read.php?ref=/wsj/2007/12/08/0712070350.php
Madison police never found the murder suspect they were looking for during a five-hour standoff Thursday with guns drawn at a home on the Near West Side.

But they say the tip wasn't entirely mistaken, noting the four people they did find in the home at 4214 Doncaster Drive provided information that still could lead them to the people responsible for fatally shooting Larry Gardner, 56, in an apartment at 2209 Cypress Way on Nov. 21.

"The information was solid, but the person we were looking for wasn't there," police spokesman Joel DeSpain said Friday.

A police incident log notes a contact was made at 9:46 a.m. Thursday with someone about a "potential homicide suspect" being at that house.

A patrol officer also was immediately stationed in the area, though not within sight of the house, the log noted.

That changed by around noon Thursday, when members of the department's Emergency Response Team could be seen deployed around the house, standing behind their squad cars with rifles pointing toward the house.

DeSpain on Friday defended the show of force as necessary for the safety of officers and others in the mostly quiet residential neighborhood, where modest, single-family homes line Doncaster Drive and the streets around it, just north of the Beltline and west of Seminole Highway.

"Someone (inside the house) could have been armed," DeSpain said. "(The incident) ended peacefully, which was one of the main objectives."

The standoff ended about 5:30 p.m., after officers received consent to search the house. No weapons and no evidence linked to the Gardner shooting was found, DeSpain said.

Four people eventually came out of the house voluntarily and talked to police. All of them were released, DeSpain said, and none was the person that police received the tip about. Police have not provided that person's name.

Police on Thursday also released photographs of two people described as "persons of interest" in the murder. Those people weren't found in the home, either, although police did locate one of them elsewhere later Thursday night. That person, identified as Napoleon Elvord, 53, was questioned and released.

"He truly was just a person of interest," DeSpain said, not a suspect - but police are still looking for the other person, identified as Shari L. Broughton, 35, to talk to about the murder.

"Police are very interested in finding her," DeSpain said.

Broughton was described as black, 5 feet 9 inches and 130 pounds. She has a criminal history in Dane and Sauk counties dating to 1991, with convictions including retail theft, damage to property, forgery, bail jumping, disorderly conduct, resisting police and drunken driving.

Police also have sketches still considered valid of two men described as suspects in the murder based on statements of witnesses to the shooting. Those men were described as black and between the ages of 18 to 20. One is about 6 foot 5 inches with very light skin, last seen wearing a dark winter jacket with cartoon characters on it. The other is about 6 feet tall with facial hair or a goatee, last seen wearing all dark clothing.

[Mysticalmom]

http://www.madison.com/archives/read.php?ref=/wsj/2007/12/13/0712120380.php
Police Interview Woman Sought In Homicide
Wisconsin State Journal :: LOCAL :: C1
Thursday, December 13, 2007
By KAREN RIVEDAL krivedal@madison.com 608-252-6106
Madison police had a stroke of good luck this week when a woman detectives have been keen to talk to about a recent homicide turned herself in Tuesday night.

Shari L. Broughton, 35, showed up on the steps of the department's South District station at 7:27 p.m., police spokesman Joel DeSpain said, promising to possibly help police find whoever killed Larry Gardner, 56, on the city's South Side Nov. 21.

"She stated she was there to give any information that she might have on the Cypress Way homicide," DeSpain said Wednesday.

Exactly how police believe Broughton figures in the case has not been revealed.

But police last week said they were "very interested" in talking to her about the murder of Gardner, who was shot once inside an apartment at 2209 Cypress Way. Officers surrounded a house on the city's Near West Side on Thursday in a five-hour standoff connected to the case but didn't find her or the homicide suspect they were looking for during a search.

Broughton is not considered a suspect in the homicide - police have sketches of two men described by witnesses as responsible for the shooting - but she is believed to be closely enough involved to provide key facts.

"The detectives believe she does have information that would be very useful in identifying and bringing in those who are responsible for the homicide," DeSpain said Wednesday. "It's felt she has some first-hand knowledge of what transpired."

Broughton, who has no permanent address, has a long criminal record in Dane and Sauk counties dating to 1991, with convictions including retail theft, damage to property, forgery, bail jumping, disorderly conduct, resisting police and drunken driving. She was immediately arrested Tuesday night on a parole violation and remained in the Dane County Jail on Wednesday. Detectives began talking to her about the murder Wednesday and planned additional conversation with her today.

"She has sat down with detectives," DeSpain said. "She's telling them some things, but exactly what it is, I don't know."

Department of Corrections spokesman John Dipko said an arrest warrant was issued for Broughton because she stopped showing up for visits with her parole agent in late September.

The two men considered suspects in a fatal shooting Nov. 21 were described as black and between the ages of 18 to 20. One is about 6 feet 5 with very light skin, last seen wearing a dark winter jacket with cartoon characters on it. The other is about 6 feet tall with facial hair or a goatee, who was wearing all dark clothing.