Naperville Elementary School (Springbrook) Teacher Stabbed to Death in a Local Pub

This is an archived report originally published on February 4, 2012.

Shaun Wild died trying to save a friend on a Naperville nightclub dance floor.

Wild, 24, was a first-year second-grade teacher at Spring Brook Elementary School and a 2011 graduate of North Central College, where he had been the football team's punter and an elementary education major. In the early hours of Saturday, February 4, 2012, he was at Frankie's Blue Room in downtown Naperville when an argument broke out between another patron and his friend, North Central senior and football player Willie Hayes.

When the confrontation turned violent, Wild stepped in to defuse it. He was stabbed once in the chest. Hayes was also stabbed, seriously wounded, and underwent emergency surgery at Edward Hospital; a bouncer who disarmed the attacker suffered minor injuries.

Daniel Olaska, 27, was taken into custody that morning and charged with first-degree murder and two counts of attempted murder. At his trial in March 2015, a jury found Olaska guilty of first-degree murder in Wild's death, though he was acquitted of the attempted-murder counts involving Hayes and the bouncer. The conviction was upheld on appeal in 2017.

The Naperville community mourned Wild as a teacher who had gone above and beyond for his students — attending their games, pushing them academically, and deciding as a fourth-grader himself that he would one day become an elementary school teacher. North Central College held a prayer service, and a memorial scholarship in his name supports future elementary educators.

Sources

• North Central College Mourns the Loss of Shaun Wild '11 — North Central Cardinals
• Naperville bar stabbing trial comes to a close — NCC Linked
• Naperville community mourns death of teacher — The North Star