BROOKFIELD, Wis. — A Wisconsin man who had been accused of domestic violence and slashing his wife's tires took a gun into the spa where she worked Sunday and shot seven women, three fatally, before killing himself, a police chief said.

The shootings set off a confusing, six-hour search for the gunman that locked down a nearby mall, a country club adjacent to the spa and the hospital where the survivors were taken. The search froze activity in a commercial area in Brookfield, a middle-to-upper class community west of Milwaukee, for much of the day. Ultimately, he was found dead in the spa.

Authorities said it would take time to sort out exactly what happened, and emphasized they were still interviewing witnesses and rescuers and did not have a firm timeline of events. At a news conference Sunday night, Mayor Steve Ponto called the shootings "a senseless act on the part of one person."