APPLETON, WI (WTAQ) – “As one witness told investigators, I don’t know how more people were not injured or killed,” explains Outagamie County District Attorney Melinda Tempelis. “I do.”
On the same day that a pair of Appleton police officers were officially justified in a fatal shooting that took place at a transit center last month, officials went one step further and praised both individuals for what they deemed to be heroic actions.
County D.A. Melinda Tempelis spoke a majority of the time at a press conference Thursday afternoon at Appleton Police Headquarters where she laid out all the findings that an investigation has unearthed about the fatal incident, which killed Appleton firefighter Mitch Lundgaard on May 15.
It was revealed that both Sergeant Biese and Officer Christensen were initially responding to help Ruben Houston, a bus traveler from Wausau, who seemed to be suffering from a drug overdose.
After he was revived using NARCAN, a shootout emerged and officer Christensen was hit.
“Even after Officer Christensen was hit and in extreme pain, he battled on, because he knew peoples lives were still in danger,” explains Appleton Police Chief Thomas.
Specifically, Houston had grabbed a bystander, Brittany Schowalter, to use as a human shield during the shootout.
Schowalter suffered a traumatic brain injury as the result of a shot that grazed her skull and she also was hit in the leg and the head — likely by officers.
Houston was eventually shot in the abdomen and later died at the hospital.
The quick response of both Appleton officers likely saved countless lives, according to Tempelis.
“Certainly, this is something that they will carry with them for the rest of their lives,” she says.
Chief Thomas explains that even after Houston was shot and the threat was seemingly erased, both officers sprung back into the role of healers.
“These officers and the others that responded then provided medical aid to the same person who just seconds ago was trying to kill them,” he says.
That’s something, as difficult as it may be, that officers are trained to do.
“Sargeant Biese and Officer Christensen we’re extremely patient and compassionate to a person who they were genuinely concerned for,” says Chief Thomas. “And in a split second, that person turned on them.”
Neither officer will face criminal charges since Tempelis found them both justified in shooting and killing Houston
