The previous mayor of a small city in South Dakota, Jay Ostrem, was charged with killing three males in Centerville, a city with a inhabitants of fewer than 1,000 individuals. In line with courtroom paperwork, Ostrem grew to become enraged when his spouse knowledgeable him {that a} neighbor had sexually assaulted her, prompting him to go away the home in a rage. The lads had been killed on Could 27, simply after Ostrem’s spouse made the accusation, however she denied realizing the place he was going or whether or not he was armed.
Zach Frankus referred to as 911 to report that his brother had been shot and killed with a shotgun, and that he himself had additionally been shot by a person from throughout the road. When authorities arrived on the scene, they discovered three males lifeless with gunshot wounds, recognized as Paul Frankus, Zach Frankus, and Timothy Richmond. Ostrem’s spouse advised him that Paul Frankus had assaulted her, which can have been a motivation for the shootings.
Ostrem was arrested shortly after the shootings whereas strolling on the road the place he lived, with an AR-style rifle discovered on the bottom close to him and a handgun in his pocket. He was charged with three counts of first-degree homicide and was held on $1 million money bond within the Minnehaha County Jail. The investigation was ongoing as of the final replace, and it was unclear if Ostrem had obtained an legal professional.
Ostrem had served as Centerville’s mayor from Could 2009 to November 2011, when the Metropolis Council accepted his resignation with out specifying the explanation. In July 2010, the town’s former police chief filed a federal lawsuit in opposition to Centerville and Ostrem, alleging that he made gender-based feedback that had been unwelcome and degrading, together with remarks about menstruation, males’s jobs, and ladies’s lack of ability to achieve success as males. Ostrem’s spouse couldn’t be reached for remark, and it remained to be seen how the case would progress.
The tragic incident in Centerville shocked the small neighborhood and raised questions on Ostrem’s motivations and way of thinking throughout the shootings. The revelation of the sexual assault accusation in opposition to a neighbor added a troubling aspect to the already devastating information of the deaths of three males. The continuing investigation by the Lawyer Common’s workplace sought to uncover extra particulars surrounding the occasions main as much as the triple-shooting and decide the suitable course of authorized motion in opposition to Ostrem.
Because the case continued to unfold, the neighborhood of Centerville and the households of the victims grappled with the aftermath of the violent incident. The impression of the lack of three lives in such a close-knit city reverberated via the neighborhood, and issues had been raised about making certain justice for the victims and their family members. The authorized proceedings in opposition to Ostrem posed a problem for the justice system and the authorities concerned, as they sought to convey closure and accountability to a tragic occasion that had shaken the city to its core.