ASHWAUBENON, WI (WTAQ) — It’s been nearly a year since the tragic and deadly workplace shooting at the Oneida Casino in Ashwaubenon.
A year ago Sunday, 62-year-old Bruce Pofahl showed up to his former place of employment the Oneida Casino, with a gun. Minutes later, 35-year-old Jacob T. Bartel and 32-year-old Ian J. Simpson–both former coworkers of Pofahl and kitchen staff at the Duck Creek Kitchen and Bar–were dead. Then-28-year-old Dan Mulligan, another coworker, was seriously injured after being shot in the face while confronting Pofahl.
A CCTV capture of Oneida Casino shooter Bruce Pofahl (circled in blue) entering the complex just before he opened fire, killing two people and injuring a third. (Screenshot)
As police responded, Pofahl refused to surrender. He died in a hail of Green Bay Police gunfire.
Sgt. Brian Jordan, a 21-year veteran of the department, Officer Makayla Wolfe, and Officer Ben Snyder, both two of whom had been with the department for two years, pulled the trigger that day. In August of last year, all three officers were cleared by the Department of Justice.
It was easy to see why–easier, in fact, than ever before. The shooting was notable not only for its tragedy and violence, but because it was the first time that body camera footage was released by Green Bay Police, having adopted body cameras department wide just weeks earlier.
“That was the first time that a major incident occurred where we had body cameras deployed. We were able to see, first hand, what our officers were going through and how things came into being,” explained Police Captain Ben Allen. “Looking at that incident itself and incidents that have happened over the last year in terms of the body cams…the information that we’ve obtained from those has been invaluable.”
A still taken from the body-worn camera of Green Bay Police Officer Ben Snyder shows the moment officers opened fire on casino shooter Bruce Pofahl, who can be seen walking behind an electrical transformer, wearing black pants and a grey jacket, near the bottom of the officer’s rifle magazine. (Screenshot)
The body camera footage along with a number of documents related to the event were released last year.
Allen says the event is now used in police training locally.
“Responding to those incidents, there is going to be chaos no matter how much you plan and no matter how much you train, it’s about how you work through that chaos,” Allen told WTAQ. “A lot of valuable lessons were learned, without a doubt. We’ve implemented a lot of those ideas into our training. It really helped us understand what a response needs to look like for that.”
Hopefully, they won’t have to use that information anytime soon.
A memorial service is scheduled to take place on Sunday, May 1st at 8 AM in front of the Radisson Hotel on the memorial bench, installed to commemorate the victims of the shooting.
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