VIROQUA, Wis. — The mayor and two sponsors of a fireworks show apologized at a news conference for a terrorizing gun scare at a Fourth of July event. They were silent, however, on key questions:
> Who were the men who terrorized the crowd with what looked lIke a machine gun attack from a Jeep running around the fairgrounds track.
> Would criminal charges be pursued for terroristic threats.
Surely Mayor Krista Browne knew who rigged up the olive green WWW2-style Jeep and mounted the 50-calibre machine gun on the roof to simulate an armed attack. Also surely knowledgeable — but also silent on key questions — were two of Viroqua’s community elite, Dane Piper and Dean Hoff. They joined Mayor Browne in front of city hall for the news conference. Piper and Hoff are leaders of the Viroqua Skylighters, the club that sponsors the annual fireworks show. Also conspiring in the silence on key issues was Vernon County Sheriff Roy Torgerson, who is in a position to make arrests and recommend criminal charges to Angela Palmer-Fisher, the county prosecutor. Palmer-Fisher also could fire charges tyrears on her own authority. Sheriff Torgerson tack has been to praise Mayor Browne for calming community concern by “quickly reaching out” to get the facts:
“I do think the mayor handled it well and met with everyone involved.”
The fact, however, that the episode remains unresolved — except for assurances that it won’t happen again. At the the news conference Mayor Browne acknowledged public alarm. Her emphasis, however, was: No harm done. She said the weapon only looked and sounded real, that the flames from the machine gun barrel were merely propane and the sounds all fake. She stressed that the episode was not part of the evening’s scheduled fireworks agenda. Her words:
“Unfortunately, last Saturday the event did not go according to plan. And for that we are all sorry. The Jeep vehicle was approved to be on site for the event. However, the driving and firing were not approved, nor were they appropriate in this community celebration, especially unplanned and unannounced.”
In effect, the mayor said: “Lessons learned, It won’t happen again” Even so, feelings around rown were less charitable. The word “coverup” rolled off people’s tongues. Said the chair of the of the county Public Safey Committee, Frank Easterday,
“It’s just a little bit scary if you don’t know what’s going on, There’s so much of that crap going on these days.”
One man at the episode described the Jeep’s machine gun as deliberate and aimed directly at people waiting for the fireworks display:
“My family was sitting right there, and it did at one point quit directly at my family and the families in the other areas. It was firing the entire time it was going around the track.”
Among critics was David Strudthoff of the county Board of Supervisors, a former school administrator:
“If somebody comes into a school and pulls out a gun,. it’s a squirt gun, but no — it looks like the real thing. Does that change the rules? If you walk into somewhere and it looks like you have an actual gun, even though the reality is a little pellet gun or a squirt gun, too bad. Does the law change now, or if this person did, or shrink the threat. The law doesn’t change just because you had a plastic gun versus a real one. You still were scaring people, so how’s that really any different than this? So people were scared. They perceived it as the real deal. So how did they get off walking away with a smile, and the rest of us in there, you scared the shit out of people. You know what, I don’t get the dichotomy.”
On City Hall doorstep. Mayor Krista Browne with fireworks organizers Dane Piper and Dan Hoff of Viroqua Skylighters. Body language spraks volumes.
Circling fairgrounds track. Four perpetrators: Two at dashboard, two on rear bumper at machine gun trigger.
Browne. In frst term as mayio. Up for re-election in 2028.
Torgerson. In first term as sheriff. Up for re-election in November.
Palmer-Fisher. In first term as county attorney. Up for re-election in 2028.
Notable journalism
This Winona Journal accOut draws heavily on:
Tim Hundt (Vernon Reporter, July 7, 2026): “Viroqua Mayor and Viroqua Skylighters Issue Apology for July Fourth Event that Included Machine Gun Fire”
Strudthoff’s word “dichotomy” echoed in town chatter. Folks were mindful of an arrest of a man jn in June fpr brandishing an air rifle at a work crew just outside town. The 43-old man, a citizen but aot of the local elite was angry about a construction project. He was afrested and went before a judge.