Prom shooting survivors 'hand-picked by God'

ANTIGO - As the crack of gunfire brought a sudden end to their high school prom Saturday night, Spencer Fittante and three friends tried to run for their lives.

Then suddenly, Spencer looked back and saw his best friend on the ground, bleeding profusely. More gunshots rang out as a police officer fired at the gunman.

Spencer, 17, ran back to his wounded buddy, ripped off the vest of his rented tuxedo and wrapped it around his friend's wounded leg. Yelling for his girlfriend to call 911, Spencer yanked off his necktie and began fashioning it into a tourniquet. Seemingly from nowhere, a school nurse appeared. She and Spencer finished wrapping the leg.

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Spencer's mother recounted the ordeal to a reporter on Monday morning, alternately expressing relief and choking back sobs. Her son had chosen to stay home from school Monday but planned to visit his friend in the hospital Monday afternoon.

"We've got our children back, and they're alive," Lynnette Fittante told USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin. "It feels like, well, they must have been hand-picked by God to survive this."

She described the four prom-goers as "faith-filled kids," but asked that her son not be interviewed, as he rested and recovered from his weekend ordeal.

Spencer's 18-year-old friend, whose family has asked that he not be identified, "has come through a long surgery and will recover with time and effort," his parents said in a statement Monday. They thanked his girlfriend and two friends at the scene, the Antigo police, and the doctors and surgeons who cared for their son. They credited their deep faith with helping them through the ordeal, and also asked for prayers for the gunman, Jakob Wagner.

The wounded boy and Spencer are teammates on the school's swim team, Lynnette Fittante said. The teens also attend Bible study group together.

The friend's date suffered a less serious wound and is expected to fully recover, Lynnette Fittante said. Spencer and his girlfriend were not injured.

Police said Wagner, 18, of Antigo went to the school Saturday night armed with a rifle. Wagner, who friends said graduated from the school in 2015, shot two prom-goers as they left the school, then was wounded by an Antigo police officer who was outside the school. Wagner died early Sunday at a local hospital.

Students at the school were kept there for hours on Sunday morning as police investigated the shooting. Lynnette Fittante said police allowed her husband, Michael, and other parents into the school to comfort their children about 2:30 a.m. Spencer and the other students returned home about 5:30 a.m.

"They had everyone there — the teachers, the school counselors, everyone's just been wonderful," she said. "What a great job Antigo has done as a community with this."

Police have not disclosed what might have motivated Wagner or revealed other details relating to the shooting. Several friends independently told USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin that he had been bullied at the school, and that they believe that might have prompted the shooting.

dschneid@greenbaypressgazette.com and follow him on Twitter @PGDougSchneider