Greenfield Woman Charged in Wednesday's Shooting Death

Regina Rath, a 45-year-old Greenfield woman, was charged with first degree reckless homicide Friday morning in connection with the .

The shooting occurred at the Rath residence, 4515 W. Morgan Ave., in a neighborhood just blocks away from both Alverno College in Milwaukee and Glenwood Elementary School.

Rath was also charged with the use of a dangerous weapon. If convicted, Rath faces a maximum 60 years in prison for the reckless homicide and five years for the weapons charge.

According to the criminal complaint filed with the district attorney’s office, Nicole Kohanski was sitting on the front porch of 4436 W. Morgan Ave. when she heard a gunshot. Within minutes, Kohanski saw Regina Rath run out of her house and saying, “I shot my husband. I didn’t mean to shoot him.”

When Detective James Bruno of the Greenfield Police Department arrived, he spoke with Rath, who said her husband had been having sex with a number of women from the neighborhood and that she had left him in the past because of his infidelity.

Bruno asked Rath what happened and she replied, “I didn’t mean to shoot him, but I did, I did,” according to the complaint.

The complaint says the Raths were having marital trouble, and police told Greenfield Patch on Wednesday that they had responded to multiple domestic violence calls at the residence since 2006. Rath told police she reached her breaking point Wednesday when Vincent told her, “You’re not (expletive), never will be (expletive). You never will make it in this world. You need to get some help.”

Rath said she was packing her bag with clothes to leave when her husband got in her face. At some point she grabbed a gun, told her husband to get away from her and then fired the gun.

“I shot Vince with the gun,” Rath told police, according to the complaint. “I did not mean to kill him, but I did.”

When Sergeant Mike Brunner entered the house, he found the victim sitting in an armchair with a gunshot wound to the chest. When he checked for vital signs, there were none.

Brunner also observed a semi-automatic pistol lying on table near the chair.

After police obtained a search warrant, Detective David Leon recovered the gun, a Smith & Wesson black 9mm handgun.