Man dies of suspected lightning strike in Pewaukee parking lot
By Kathryn Merck
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PEWAUKEE, Wisconsin (WDAY) — A man in his 40s died of a suspected lightning strike Wednesday, April 15, after being found unresponsive in a Pewaukee Kwik Trip parking lot during severe storms, according to police.
The man was identified by family to be 41-year-old Peter Paul Garamone Sr. He was a long-haul trucker from Pennsylvania with a wife and son.
Emergency responders say they were called to the Kwik Trip on Golf Road around 7:45 p.m.
Waukesha police say preliminary information indicates Garamone was struck by lightning while walking through the parking lot. He reportedly called first responders when it happened and later died at an area hospital.
This is the first fatal lightning strike in the United States of 2026. It is also the second lightning fatality in Wisconsin in the last seven months.
“Your likelihood of getting struck by lightning in any given year is lower than one in a million,” said Chris Vagasky, a Lightning Data Specialist with the National Lightning Safety Council and a Research Program Manager with Wisconet. “When you look at that over a lifetime, that number is down around one in a few thousand, so it doesn’t seem like it’s a big percentage, but it is still a very common way to be injured or killed by weather in the United States.”
Waukesha police are working with the medical examiner to determine the man’s identity and the cause of death. The department added that their thoughts are with the family of this man during this difficult time.
Beau Snowden lives near the Kwik Trip where this happened and said he heard the lightning strike.
“We could feel it through the whole house right over there, right up University Drive. It was the loudest thunderbolt we ever heard,” Snowden said. “It could have been any of us going to the gas station. “It’s terrible. You got to watch out for these storms. It’s real dangerous.”
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