WAUSAU - One person was killed and two were injured in a shooting spree Thursday morning at a highly visible Wausau cemetery, minutes after a fire broke out at a Schofield apartment building about a mile away.

Police said the shooting and the fire were connected but did not explain further. They also said they arrested a suspect in the shooting.

All of the victims were either employees at the Pine Grove Cemetery, or related to employees there, Wausau Police Chief Ben Bliven said. Police closed off all entrances at the cemetery, which is along the heavily traveled Grand Avenue connecting Wausau to Schofield.

Bliven withheld the identities of the victims during a 2 p.m. press conference at the Wausau Public Safety Building, and he said he wouldn't comment on the condition of those taken to the hospital.

RELATED: What we know about a shooting at Pine Grove Cemetery in Wausau, related Schofield apartment fire

The suspected shooter, a Schofield resident, was in custody. He is believed to be a former employee of the cemetery. Police have not released his name, but said he used a handgun in the shooting. Police found a handgun in the cemetery.

Clayton Schulz, chief of the Everest Metro Police Department, said a fire at the Lakeview Apartments complex on Fullmer Street in Schofield is suspicious. The fire broke out about 15 minutes before the shooting. Bliven said the suspect lives on Fullmer Street. Police planned to obtain search warrants for the building to investigate the fire's connection to the shooting.

Police received a call about the fire at 8:14 a.m. and about 15 minutes later they learned about a shooting at the cemetery, Bliven said. One person was dead at the cemetery when they arrived, and police soon found the other two injured victims.

Two victims were brought to Aspirus Wausau Hospital at about 9 a.m., hospital spokesman Andrew Krauss said.

Bliven said little more about the case except the investigation is rapidly evolving, and he told journalists at the press conference he would not take questions at that time.

The shooting was a "significant tragedy," he said.

Police said they don't believe there is an active threat to the community. The Wisconsin State Police and the Wisconsin Department of Justice arrived at the cemetery around 11 a.m. Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources game wardens were on site interviewing witnesses.

The Marathon-Oneida County Sheriff Bomb Squad responded to the scene at the Lakeview Apartments where firefighters put out a fire in a garage earlier Thursday morning. At the press conference, Schulz asked that members of the public stay away from the scene of the fire as investigators work.

The apartment building and a nearby business also were evacuated because of high levels of gas found in a vacant home next to the apartment complex. The gas leak was unrelated to the fire, said Nick Aldrich, an officer with the Everest Metro Police Department.

Wisconsin Public Service crews were also on the scene.

Grand Avenue, which runs along the cemetery, was down to one lane from Bernard Street, near Jenny's Restaurant, to Mcdonald Street. All entrances to the cemetery were closed.

Rick Schultz, a Wausau man who lives near the cemetery, said he was outside with his dog when he heard "between 20 and 30 shots ring out" around 8:30 a.m. Thursday.

He told reporters on the scene he was waiting to hear if a friend of his who works at the cemetery was one of the victims.

"I'm just stunned because I'm pretty sure one of my friends has been shot," Schultz said.

He said he sent her several messages but still hasn't heard from her.

"It's just very disturbing that this kind of thing has to happen here in Wausau," Schultz said. "It's terrible. You don't expect things like this to happen here."

Another man, who works at Wausau Monument across the street from the cemetery, said he heard four or five shots and looked up to see a man on a bicycle near the entrance of the cemetery. The man took off on the bike, riding away farther into the cemetery.

Another employee of Wausau Monument said that one of the victims, a woman, was shot while in her car. The car, the witness said, is near the corner of Grand Avenue and Mcdonald Street and is roped off with police tape.

The fire at the Lakeview Apartments complex appeared to be contained to a garage area behind the apartment complex. An Everest Metro police officer on the scene at around 9:40 a.m. said no one had been injured in the blaze.

Logan Nelson lives in the apartment complex, and he noticed smoke coming from the garage building shortly after he woke up. He called 911.

"You don't wake up to a fire every day," Logan said. He didn't see large flames, and his car was not parked in the garage.