DENVER—The Army veteran authorities say killed six worshippers in a Wisconsin Sikh temple was “a precious little boy” as a child and showed no hint that he would grow up to be a musician with white supremacist leanings, his former stepmother said Monday.
“He was a gentle, kind, loving child, little boy and teenager,” 67-year-old Laura Page said of the Wade Michael Page she knew.
“I’m devastated,” she said. “I loved him. He was a precious little boy and that’s what my mind keeps going back to.”
Wade Page was 10 when Laura Page married his father, Jesse, she said. Jesse Page shared custody with Wade’s biological mother, who has since died, family members said. Laura Page and Jesse Page divorced in 2001, she said.
Laura Page’s memories are a stark contrast to the portrait emerging in Milwaukee, where Wade Page was shot and killed by police after the attack on the Sikh temple.
The Southern Poverty Law Center described him as a “frustrated neo-Nazi” who was active in the obscure underworld of white supremacist music.
Laura Page recalls a normal family life when Wade spent time with her and his father in Colorado. “We went fishing, we went camping, things like that,” she said.
Laura Page said her ex-husband lives in Texas and is suffering from cancer. She said they have spoken since the shootings and that he, too, is devastated but does not want to speak to the media.
It’s not clear where Wade Page went to school, but Laura Page said she believed he graduated from a high school in the Denver suburb of Littleton. A Social Security number was issued for him in Colorado when he was 12 or 13.
As an adult, Page lived off and on in Colorado, but little about that time has emerged.
He was arrested on April 27, 1999, after his vehicle hit a sign at an apartment complex. According to court records, Page had a blood alcohol level of 0.178, more than 1 1/2 times the legal limit. He told police he worked for a motorcycle dealer.
He pleaded guilty to driving under the influence, a misdemeanor, on Aug. 30, 1999. A judge suspended a 60-day jail sentence for Page on the condition that he complete a year of alcohol treatment, 56 hours of community service and probation.
Denver district attorney’s office spokeswoman Lynn Kimbrough said he only did 18 hours of service and there’s no record of whether he completed treatment. An arrest warrant was issued in 2000. Under county procedures at the time, the warrant was canceled in 2007 and the case was closed.
According to records, Page lived in the Denver area periodically between 1990 and 2007. His last known address in Colorado was a modest, multi-storied apartment building in Littleton.
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Associated Press writers P. Solomon Banda and Steven K. Paulson contributed to this report.
