Anthony Sherwin: Gunman who killed 3 family members at Iowa campsite had never met victims
MAQUOKETA, IOWA: A gunman targeted an Iowa family of four at a campground last Friday, killing three of its members. According to investigators, the shooting was not premeditated as the gunman had never met the victims before. Tyler and Sarah Schmidt, both 42, and their 6-year-old daughter Lula were killed in their tent during a camping trip at the Maquoketa Caves State Park in Jackson County, Iowa. The fourth member of their family, 9-year-old Arlo, fortunately, survived the attack. PEOPLE reported that after executing the murder, the gunman, Anthony Sherwin, 23, of La Vista, Neb, turned the gun on himself.
WHBF-TV has reported that according to the agents with the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigations, the gunman was also camping on the ground with his parents, like the victims' family. Sarah's brother said, "All we know is that this was completely random, nobody in either's family knew anybody." Both the family and the suspect were unknown to each other. Morehouse said, "We don't know of any interaction that occurred. It was simply this individual woke up that morning and decided to pick a tent and walk into that tent, where my sister and her family were sleeping, and never got a chance to wake up."
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Investigation into the case is still ongoing. Iowa DCI Assistant Director Mitch Mortvedt said, "At this time, we have not been able to come across any type of interaction between him and the Schmidt family, nothing that precipitated it as far as we know." He also interviewed the shooter's family and other campers. He stated, "Nothing that we can establish precipitated anything, other than just the randomness of it, the proximity." The station reported that Mortvedt refrained from providing details on how Arlo survived the attack.
Speaking to Papillion Times, Cecilia Sherwin, Anthony's mother, said that she does not believe Anthony is a murderer. She said that she heard a boy crying for help after the shooting, and he informed her that the man was dressed in black. But Cecilia remembers Sherwin wearing green when he was last seen. She also states that they were legally carrying a gun on their trip to the campground. As per the outlet, Cecilia said, "We think [Anthony] might have sensed trouble and grabbed the gun for safety." She further added that she and her family "cooperated fully with the police and investigative team from the get-go."
Cecilia also informed the authorities during the primary investigation that she was worried as Anthony was also missing and that he might have fallen victim to the shooter. The autopsy reports are still awaited, Mortvedt said to PEOPLE. Meanwhile, a GoFundMe campaign is live to help Arlo, and it has raised over $230,000 so far.