Two UW-Platteville female students, both 22, die in 'targeted and isolated' dorm incident

Yahoo

20-05-2025

PLATTEVILLE — Two University of Wisconsin-Platteville students died in a residence hall incident that a school email describes as a "targeted and isolated" incident on May 19.
The university identified the students as Kelsie Martin, 22, of Beloit, and Hallie Helms, 22, of Baraboo. Helms graduated with an elementary education degree just two days before the shooting, according to a graduation program. Martin was listed as a psychology graduate in the same program.
The school email, which went out shortly after 11 p.m., said the families of the two women had been notified.
For hours, UW-Platteville administrators and law enforcement officials were tight-lipped about the incident that prompted a shelter-in-place order and a large police presence on campus.
However, several sources on campus said a shooting apparently had occurred around 4 p.m., at Wilgus Hall, a student residence. Some saw an ambulance at the scene. Emergency dispatch audio also appeared to confirm a shooting, though the audio could not be verified.
Amanda Sawatzki, 24, was at a drinking fountain on the first floor of Wilgus Hall and heard the voices of two people fighting in a room down the hall about 3:20 p.m. Sawatzki, who uses the pronoun "they," returned to their room to work on a senior seminar paper. Then they heard a single loud bang, followed by a muffled sound, like something heavy falling on the floor.
A criminal justice major who went through commencement on Saturday, Sawatzki was sure the noise was a gunshot.
'From commencement on Saturday to a school shooting on Monday, it's surreal,' they said. 'You think it's never going to happen to you and then it happens to you.'
Sawatzki barricaded their door with a chair, fearing a shooter was on the loose in the dorm.
'It was the fear of 'I'm trapped like an animal in a cage' and the mental awareness that 'I'm just sitting there and there's nothing I can do,' is festering,' Sawatzki said. 'I never thought I would be a statistic in a crime shooting.'
A little before 5 p.m., three police officers knocked on the door, yelling to open up. The officers, who they described as heavily armed, searched the room and escorted Sawatzki out.
A family member of Helms declined to comment. Relatives of Martin could not be reached for comment.
The women's online footprints paint a picture of two students on the brink of starting careers in their fields of study.
Martin was the assistant resident director at Wilgus Hall since 2023, according to her LinkedIn profile. That meant she was the lead supervisor of the dorm, overseeing eight to 12 resident assistants, she said on LinkedIn. She attended weekly meetings, held office hours and 'responded to various emergencies around the hall,' including mental health concerns, hate and bias reports, violations of campus policy and more, according to her profile.
Martin majored in psychology with an emphasis on human services, according to a Facebook post from the Residence Life department spotlighting her in 2024.
She was a 'growing leader and role model for young women on campus,' the post said. It praised her 'phenomenal work' in her position at the dorm.
In the post, Martin is quoted as saying she applied for the job because 'I wanted to help people the same way my RA helped me through my first year on campus.'
The post also included a 'fun fact' about Martin: She owned more than 400 books and wanted to have a library in her home one day.
Helms, preparing for a career in education, created a personal website about herself and her teaching philosophy. She was inspired by teachers who helped her reach her 'highest potential,' she wrote, according to an archived copy of the site.
'I want to be the teacher who had helped, counseled, and inspired change,' she wrote. 'I want to change students for the better.'
Helms attended Baraboo High School and UW-Baraboo before transferring to Platteville in 2023, according to her website. In high school she joined an art club, a computer club and the Gender Sexuality Alliance club. And in college, she was part of a knitting club and an aspiring teachers club.
She also said she collected nail polish bottles and enjoyed fishing, swimming and hiking at Devil's Lake each summer.
At a 7 p.m. press conference on campus, UW-Platteville Police Chief Joseph Hallman would not say whether there had been a shooting, whether anyone was injured or killed, or whether an attack of any kind had even happened.
Neither he nor any other university officials would go beyond saying it was an isolated incident, even refusing to say whether anyone was taken to a hospital. "There was a transport," was as far as Hallman would go, but he would not say how many people were taken or to where.
Hallman said no one was in custody and there was not an ongoing threat to anyone on campus, and officers were still investigating.
He insisted he was not being deliberately vague.
"It's just a difficult situation right now that we're investigating, the incident that occurred within the Wilgus," Hallman said. "And we're really not at liberty to go into all the details of that because it's an active, fluid investigation."
Students who own guns for hunting or sporting purposes are allowed to store them at the UW-Platteville Police Department in a vault, Hallman said. Guns are not allowed in residence halls or other campus buildings, the Journal Sentinel previously reported. But people with a state-issued concealed-carry license may have them on campus grounds or in personal vehicles.
The shelter-in-place order lasted just an hour, from about 4 p.m. to just after 5 p.m.
"We need to let the police do their investigation," university spokeswoman Christine Bellport said in a statement to reporters. "We are getting help from the state, Grant County, and city. We are working to support students that are affected by this."
Like Hallman, Bellport also declined at the time to say why the shelter-in-place order was given.
City of Platteville police also were at the scene. An officer declined to share how many officers or any other details.
Gov. Tony Evers provided minimal information as well.
'I've been briefed on the situation at UW-Platteville, and we will continue to remain in close contact with university officials,' he said in a statement.
The university is located in Wisconsin's southwest corner and enrolls about 5,800 students. Wilgus Hall accommodates 230 residents, according to UW-Platteville's website. It is one of 10 residence halls, and more than 2,800 students live on campus, the school said.
The incident came near the end of the spring semester, on the first day of final exams, which were scheduled to run through May 23. Exams were canceled for the rest of the week, and final grades would be figured out on a case-by-case basis, administrators said.
Provost Laura Reynolds said she knew students had questions about their grades.
"That is not our priority right now," she said. "Our priority is your wellness and your well-being."
The university was offering counseling services 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., May 20 through May 23, in Royce Hall. Therapy dogs and an emotional support phone line were also available, the school said.
More: What to know about UW-Platteville in southwestern Wisconsin
The lack of clarity at the press conference annoyed many students, who made up most of the roughly 75 people gathered in the university student center.
Sophomore mechanical engineering major Kaleb Regoli said the conference was 'an absolute nothing-burger.'
Echoing that sentiment, Adam Klippel, 20, said, 'It's frustrating to know something happened, but not know what.' The sophomore accounting major said he and others were left to compare bits of information from other students.
Ashley Weis, a UW-Platteville sophomore who lives in Wilgus Hall, said she was on her way back from an exam when she saw people running to the campus gym.
'My stomach dropped,' Weis said.
After the briefing, Weis said everything seemed 'really confusing.' UW-Platteville is such a small campus, she said, that it feels like you're two degrees apart from everyone.
'It's been really terrifying,' she said.
Around 8 p.m., officers who had been milling in and out of Wilgus Hall told student residents it was their last chance to get belongings from their rooms. The university set up temporary housing at Brockert Hall, though some students decided to stay with friends off-campus.
Later, students could be seen in the Brockert lobby with a therapy dog.
Rolling Hills Church, a church near campus affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention, opened its doors for people who wanted to gather following the campus incident. Rolling Hills Pastor Matt Wunderlin said about 140 people, representing many faiths in the Platteville community, participated.
It was important to bring students and community members together with the incident happening at the same time the semester is coming to a close, said Brenda Crossfield, the senior pastor at First English Church, which co-hosted the gathering.
Church leaders let students dictate the flow of the event. Small groups of people talked, some people colored and, after about 45 minutes, some sang and prayed aloud.
Crossfield used to live in Kansas City, and she noted the UW-Platteville incident happened just after the anniversary of April 2014 shootings at a Jewish community center and a retirement home in suburban Olathe, Kansas.
'We've done this too many times,' Crossfield said.
Drake Bentley of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Two women die in 'targeted and isolated' UW-Platteville dorm incident