Barb Caffrey's Blog

Folks, we’ve had a couple of tragedies in Wisconsin in recent weeks that have deeply affected me. Because of that, and because it’s Sunday, I wanted to discuss them in the hopes that someone out there has some ideas as to comfort those who remain.

First, a young couple from Racine County, Gina and Emerson Weingart, died at Gina’s workplace, the Sports Page Barr in Elkhorn. They were killed on February 1, 2024, just after midnight. Gina worked for Wisconsin Vision during the day and bartended at night; her husband was a meat manager at a grocery store in Mukwanago. He was there to protect her…and perhaps he did, as he died along with her.

The suspect in the shooting is a fifty-seven-year-old convicted felon. (As is my wont, I am not going to name this man. He’s gotten enough publicity already.) He shouldn’t have had a gun. He did. He shot them to death. And he ran…but was caught.

This individual now has pled not guilty to this crime, but his reasoning is ridiculous. According to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel (behind a paywall so I can’t link to it), this man said he only shot Gina Weingart when she tried to take the gun away from him. He said, again according to the Journal-Sentinel, that he took the money out of the cash register and only then shot Emerson Weingart. He clumsily tried to dispose of the weapon, and went straight home…and the police found him, very quickly.

I realize we’re all presumed innocent until proven guilty. But this man’s explanation of why he killed two young lovers makes no sense.

Mr. and Mrs. Weingart married in June of 2023. It sounds like, to me at least, that they waited until Covid died down so they could celebrate their wedding with their families.

So. They were newlyweds. Deeply in love. Working hard, as people do when they’re able. She had two jobs. He had one that was tough, as being a meat manager is no sinecure. Their whole lives were in front of them.

This suspect, who I remind you all was a convicted felon, snuffed out their lives for no reason at all.

In case anyone out there is thinking, “Well, a good man with a gun could’ve killed that guy,” please spare me. We have too many guns in this country already if a convicted felon can get one and do this, all right? Besides, my heart is sore for these people and their loved ones. They should both be alive today, enjoying themselves, and appreciating their life together. That they’re not is a crime whether this guy gets convicted or not.

If you want to help with final expenses for the Weingarts, there is a GoFundMe set up. They have raised $15K. Now, that probably did cover most of the expenses…but considering how people have donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to people who mostly don’t need it in the past (such as Mary Lou Retton, or even though I approved of it, Damar Hamlin after his near-death experience on the football field), I’d like to see more help for this couple if at all possible.

Now to the second tragedy. There was an awful crash in Clark County (rural Wisconsin) between a semi truck and a bus. Nine people died. One person, a two-year-old child, lived. We don’t know the names of everyone yet, but apparently seven of them were from a small town, Burke’s Garden, in Virginia. They were Amish. There is also a GoFundMe set up for these victims, which makes sense when you consider that the Amish do not in general buy life insurance nor do they have much in the way of health insurance either.

Both of these tragedies have deeply upset me. First, the young couple…my goodness, why did this even happen? Second, the Amish minding their own business on the bus…this particular place in Clark County, apparently, is known for being a deceptive intersection where many accidents happen (this according to a few news reports I’ve seen on television and heard on the radio). The semi was on one road; the bus was on another, it intersected, they hit each other, and all but one person died. (One of the folks that died on the bus was a six-month-old child.) As I said before, a two-year-old lived; his grandparents found a way to get to him (as they are Amish, it sounds like, as well) in order to take care of him as every single last other member of his family along for that trip died.

The Amish certainly believe in the Higher Power, known as male and monotheistic, and believe everything happens for a reason. Yet it seems utterly absurd to believe that a two-year-old was supposed to be left alone after the rest of his immediate family has died. How is that cosmic justice?

Both of the Weingarts believed in God, too. Gina was raised Catholic. Her husband was a member of an evangelical Lutheran church. (Both of them had a joint obituary, seen here.) They were doing the right things in the best of ways, it sounds like; they were considerate people, caring people, and honest people. They were the type of folks who would give you the shirts off their backs if you needed it…and their lives were snuffed out by someone who seems completely unworthy of the sobriquet “human being.”

Too many people forget those who’ve died, who’ve predeceased them, especially when they die by accident (as in the Clark County traffic accident) or have died on the job (as happened to Gina Weingart and her husband, Emerson Weingart). I refuse to be among those who have forgotten, already, the victims of these senseless tragedies.

I don’t know why terrible things happen. I wish I did.

All I do know is that I mourn for them all, but most especially Gina and Emerson Weingart. They should be alive today, and that they aren’t sickens me.