A convicted felon allegedly shot dead a newlywed couple at a sports bar where the wife worked as a bartender over less than $150.
Thomas Routt Jr, 57, admitted to investigators that he opened fire inside Sports Page Barr in downtown Elkorn, Wisconsin, with the intention of robbing the establishment.
Routt made off between $120 and $140 from the cash drawer on February 1, after shooting Gina Weingart, 37, and her husband Emerson Weingart, 33, police alleged on Friday.
A bystander said Routt was in the bar for roughly a half hour playing on a video game machine and then pulled out a gun and told the Weingarts and another person to stay put, cops said.
‘The eyewitness said Routt brandished a handgun and pointed it at Gina, the bartender, and ordered them not to move,’ said police. ‘The eyewitness said they instinctively got up off their barstool and Routt pointed the gun at the eyewitness and ordered the eyewitness not to move.’
Routt allegedly started shooting, at which point the eyewitness rushed out of the bar and called 911, cops said. The suspect fled the scene in his vehicle and drove home.
Walworth County Sheriff’s Office deputies arrested Routt early on February 4 and he was found to be on parole for arson.
‘Routt subsequently admitted to shooting both Emerson and Gina Weingart and following the eyewitness out the back door and shooting at the eyewitness as they fled,’ cops said.
He has been charged with two counts of first-degree intentional homicide, a count of attempted first-degree intentional homicide, armed robbery and felon possessing a firearm.
During Routt’s court appearance on Friday, Emerson’s father, Jeff Weingart, said that the governor’s administration in 2020 ‘paroled this monster who committed this brazen act that took the lives of two very special, beautiful, and loving people in Gina and Emerson’, CBS 58 reported.
‘Please recall that the system that convicted and incarcerated him failed, he told a judge.
Routt has spent more than two decades in prison for convictions around arson and burglary.
Gina and Emerson were regulars at the bar and became close to the staff before she became employed there.
‘When I eventually offered Gina a part time job, they were already a part of the family,’ the bar’s owner, Jordan Barr, wrote on Facebook following their deaths.
‘Their lives were just beginning, and I believe I speak for our entire Sports Page family by saying we are absolutely devastated by what happened. It is a despicable act of violence that has shaken all of us to our core.’
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.
