"Everyone's friend"

By Danielle Thibodeau and Jess Kelly
jskelly@uwm.edu and thibode2@uwm.edu
Oct. 14, 2007

On the UW-Milwaukee campus, Bradley Schultz had developed a reputation as "everyone's friend."

He was the sort of person who always seemed to have a smile on his face. He was the kind of person who always seemed positive. He was the last person you'd suspect would lose his life so tragically and so young.

Early Sunday on Oct. 7, 2007, friendships ended and lives changed.

Schultz had gone home to Crandon to visit family and friends over the homecoming weekend.  Little did he know that he wouldn’t be coming back to campus. Around 2:45 a.m. Sunday, a sheriff's deputy named Tyler Peterson stormed into his ex-girlfriend’s house and opened fire. Peterson fired 30 rounds and ending up killing six people who were present in the home -Bradley Schultz included.

Schultz was much more than just an average 20-year-old college student, and it is clear that he will be greatly missed. His friends describe him as caring, giving, genuine, outgoing, and overall a really good person, among other things.

A few of his fellow students from his creative writing class in the fall of 2006 said that he was everyone’s friend.

“He simply did not have a bad bone in his body. Bradley was the nicest guy,” said classmate and friend Sarah Teegarden.

Another friend, Michael Pride, recalls coming into class and having Bradley introduce himself. After more talking, they realized they had more classes than just Creative Writing with one another.

It was an effortless friendship. Pride also said that Schultz was a friendly guy, definitely a kid who had a lot of friends.

People who knew Bradley miss him. People who did not know Bradley wish they had known him. Many students on the UWM campus are in a state of shock in response to last weekend’s events.

After all, no one is supposed to die at the age of 20-years old.

“Live like there is no tomorrow,” says the phrase that Schultz chose for his facebook site.

Not one of Bradley’s friends will ever forget his smile. It is the one thing everyone commented on when asked about him.

One friend, Nikki Lipski, remembered, “He always had a smile on his face, and a great one-of-a-kind personality.”

Friend Amber Schaffer said, “He was always looking at the good things in life.”

Schultz was a third-year criminal justice majoraspiring to be a homicide detective.

Friends and people around the community are confused. There weren’t any signs of this happening.

“I wish there were simple answers, but with a tragedy like this, I feel like no answer will be good enough,” said Melissa Penasa, a friend of Bradley.