Ed Treleven | Wisconsin State Journal
A custody battle between a man and woman who had once been a couple escalated to gunfire Monday night, with the woman sustaining gunshot wounds to both legs, according to a criminal complaint filed Wednesday.
Samuel T. Bonanno, 35, of Madison, was charged with attempted first-degree first-degree murder for the shooting, which began after the two had an argument about whether Bonanno was outside of her home on the 200 block of Greenway Cross or had contact with her According to the complaint, her 14-year-old son, who lives there with his mother, should have.
A witness who was with Bonanno said Bonanno fired a gun at the 33-year-old woman after she slapped Bonanno in the face during the argument. Bonanno was still in the passenger seat in the witness’ car when he fired the shot, and officers later found a single spent bullet casing in the car.
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Bonanno ran out of the car, the police witness said, after refusing to drive him away after the shooting. Bonanno was quickly found about three blocks away by a Fitchburg police officer who arrested Bonanno at gunpoint, the complaint said.
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Bonanno appeared in court Wednesday, where Court Commissioner Karie Cattanach set his bail at $300,000, citing the seriousness of Bonanno’s charges.
According to the complaint:
Before the incident, the boy told police he was at the nearby Speedway service station on Fish Hatchery Road and got into a car with his father and a woman who was driving. He said he was taken from there to his mother’s house.
The driver of the car said she met Bonanno through a website about a week earlier and drove around with him running errands, including at the speedway, where they picked up the boy.
The boy’s mother said Bonanno had threatened her in the past. She said they dated for five to seven years a few years ago. Now, she said, she has “a custody battle with him” but hasn’t filed anything in court yet. She said she believes Bonanno is a bad influence on her son.
On Monday, she told police she got home and realized her son wasn’t there, so she went outside to look for him. Sometime after she went back inside, there was a knock on the door and her son was there. She admitted she yelled at him.
She said the boy then walked away and ran to a car parked on the street. The woman went to the car and saw Bonanno in the passenger seat. His window was down so she walked up to him and yelled at him and told him he couldn’t just show up at her house and take her son.
She said she was walking away when she was shot at from 8 to 10 feet away.
Her injuries were described as being caused by a single bullet penetrating each of her thighs.
The boy told police that his mother hit his father in the face with her clenched fist before the shooting, which the driver of the car also told police.
The driver told police that after he fired the shot, Bonanno told her, “Go, go, go,” but she told him, “I’m sorry” and “I can’t help you.”
Bonanno ran away and was spotted by a Fitchburg officer on his way to the crime scene. After confirming the suspect’s description, the officer stopped his car, got out, drew his gun and told Bonanno to lie on the ground. Bonanno replied, “I don’t have anything,” before lying down.
With no questions asked, Bonanno repeatedly said, “I was just trying to get along with my kids,” “I was threatened with guns[by the police],” and “I did nothing wrong.”
He added: “To be honest I don’t even know what happened. All I know is that I tried to go home.”
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