31-year-old Misty Cook, a waitress and nursing student withreported ties to white supremacist organisations, was arrested as part of ajoint investigation between the FBI and South Milwaukee Police Department"on the crime of felon in possession of a firearm."
"Charges will be sought through the Milwaukee CountyDistrict Attorney's Office," Milwaukee police said in a statement lastnight after the arrest of Cook, the former girlfriend of the slain 41-year-oldgunman Wade Page.
A federal law enforcement official was quoted as saying byABC News that Cook was taken into custody on the grounds that she is prohibitedfrom having a gun as a convicted felon.
Cook was charged in 2002 for fleeing and eluding a trafficofficer.
Cook's relationship with Page fell apart in the weeksleading up to his alleged shooting spree at the gurdwara.
In Oak Creek, Wisconsin, thousands of people gathered lastevening in an outpour of support for victims of the shooting on Sunday. Theylit candles, flew orange Sikh flags and joined in Sikh prayers.
"What we learned, you know, about the shooter is he didstuff with music that was completely full of hate and energy that wasbrain-washing to himself," Amardeep Kaleka, whose father Satwant SinghKaleka was president of the gurdwara and among those shot and killed, wasquoted as saying.
During the search operation at Cook's residence, policerecovered a gun, but law enforcement officials said that the weapon was notinvolved in the shooting incident.
Cook had lived with Page at two separate apartments in SouthMiliwakee.
Jenna Benn, the Anti-Defamation League's assistant regionaldirector in Chicago, told Stars and Stripes that Cook is affiliated with thewhite-power group Volksfront and is a supporter of the Hammerskin Nation, aDallas-based white supremacy group.
She said the suspected gunman's ex-girlfriend is a prolificposter on hate forums.
Cook's neighbours told Fox news that Cook and Page separatedrecently.
One neighbour recently reported hearing Page "bangingon the door of his old apartment, demanding to be let in."
David Brown, 62, a Navy veteran who also lived in thebuilding, said Page often lifted weights in the basement, as angry musicblasted away.
He said Cook began to change after living with Page.
"The longer she stayed here with him, the more quietand more withdrawn she got," he was quoted as saying. "In the end shedidn't even make eye contact with me."
According to the news channel, neighbours who lived in thebuilding where Page and Cook shared a home for the first four months of 2012said they were a strange couple, keeping to themselves.
When a Hispanic family moved into the building, the couplemoved out.
"They had no stuff, and they didn't have movers, it wasreally weird," Robert Haugle, a resident of the building, said.
"Just one day they were gone," he told the newschannel.
