Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer visits the Ford Bronco off-road track during the Motor Bella 2021 auto show in Pontiac, Michigan, September 21, 2021.
Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer visits the Ford Bronco off-road track during the Motor Bella 2021 auto show in Pontiac, Michigan, September 21, 2021. Reuters / REBECCA COOK

Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer's name appeared on a hit list kept by a man who allegedly fatally shot a retired Wisconsin judge on Friday, the governor's office said on Saturday.

"Yesterday our office was notified by law enforcement officials that Governor Whitmer's name appeared on the Wisconsin gunman's list," a spokesman for Whitmer told Reuters.

"While the news reports are deeply troubling, we will not comment further on an ongoing criminal investigation," he added.

The Wisconsin Department of Justice said the retired judge, John Roemer, 68, was found dead on Friday in his home after the local sheriff's office received a call about "an armed person and two shots fired in a Township of New Lisbon residence."

The department called it a "targeted" attack. It said that Douglas Uhde, 56, was found in the basement of Roemer's home with an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. A firearm was recovered at the scene.

The department said Uhde remains in critical condition at a medical facility.

"This ... does appear to be a targeted act and the individual who is a suspect appears to have had other targets as well. It appears to be related to the judicial system," Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul said at a Friday news conference.

In April, a federal jury acquitted two men of conspiring to kidnap Whitmer in 2020 and deadlocked on the same charges for two other men.