In the aftermath of the spa shooting in Wisconsin on Sunday, WTMJ anchor Susan Kim reported on her personal connection to one of the victims: Kim was a client of Zina Haughton, a stylist at the spa who was the estranged wife of the alleged shooter. Seven people were shot before the gunman killed himself.
Kim first revealed the news from the scene around 2:30 p.m., saying, “My stylist may be related to … the alleged gunman. She’s a really wonderful person.” Haughton was one of the three fatalities in the shooting.
Kim remained on the scene throughout WTMJ’s continuing coverage, offering detailed accounts of the spa and Haughton:
I did know the gunman’s wife. She was my stylist. She was just a dear, darling woman. She’s in her early 40s, and she talked about her two girls. She was a very proud mother, very happy, an excellent stylist, really took her job seriously. You could tell that she was very well-liked within the spa.
Kim went on to say that she had talked to the woman’s other clients, who reported that she was “frustrated and tired about her marriage and that she was finally going to do it, to file for divorce.”
In a blog post on the WTMJ website, anchor Shelly Wolcott wrote about Kim’s personal connection to the story:
[h/t Milwaukee Journal Sentinel]Just last week our “Daybreak” anchor Susan Kim got a brand new haircut. So many of us has complimented her on how cute it was, how it changed her whole look. The woman who cut Susan’s hair … was the same woman that died Sunday. The same woman whose husband had become so violent, a restraining order had to be issued against him.
Susan worked on-air with us Sunday, becoming visibly emotional as she described the woman who had been her stylist for at least 10 years. Every once in a while as reporters we find a personal connection to a story. This happened to our Susan today, and her description of the deceased and the relationship the people in Azana Spa had with each other nearly brought me to tears, right there on air.
There are really no words that could tie up such a disturbing day into a neat little package. In the coming weeks and months much will be said about what happened in Brookfield Sunday. But there will never be any words to describe the grief so many of us feel when the innocent are victimized by a madman.