NEENAH, WI (WTAQ) – Charges are expected later this week against a 45-year-old man for causing a deadly standoff and hostage situation in downtown Neenah on Saturday.
Brian Flatoff is jailed and police are recommending first-degree reckless endangerment charges, among others. No word yet on when Flatoff would make his first court appearance.
Neenah police were called to Eagle Nation Cycles, 206 Main Street, for a disturbance just before 9 a.m.
Police say Flatoff went inside the cycle shop and allegedly took several people hostage inside the building. When officers tried going inside the building to rescue the hostages, they were fired at.
One Neenah officer was hit in his ballistic helmet with one of the bullets. He was taken to the hospital where he was treated and released.
Afterward, 60-year-old Michael Funk of Neenah exited the business with a firearm. Police say Funk failed to comply with officers’ commands to drop the gun and was shot at by one or more officers. Authorities are not sure if Funk was shot at by Flatoff inside.
Following several hours of negotiations, Flatoff was taken into custody.
VICTIMS’ ATTORNEY SPEAKS OUT
Cole White, a Green Bay-based attorney for Funk and his family, says they’re considering legal action against the city of Neenah and its police department.
“We’re exploring all options at this point, it’s a little early and we don’t have a full picture of what went down under the circumstances,” said White when reached by phone on Monday. “Mr. Funk was a great man. He was a loving father, husband, grandfather who died I think in one of the worst ways possible.”
For starters, White isn’t buying the police narrative of what happened at the scene.
“We don’t believe the narrative as its being put forward,” says White. “I’m reserving judgement on whether or not he had a weapon in his hand. If he did, I can tell you that he would not have been holding it in any way that would’ve been or should’ve been perceived as threatening to law enforcement.”
Another issue is the timing of when law enforcement at the scene fired upon Funk.
“Individuals in the Neenah department and the Department of Justice have told me that it couldn’t have been more than 5 seconds between the time that he exited and when the opened fire,” says White. “We know there had been an exchange of gunfire between Flatoff and officers earlier, that’s a defaening sound especially in an enclosed concrete area. We also have the fact that he has hearing loss, so he’d been traumatized, he’s been a victim, who knows what happened between him and this person, and he steps outside the door and 5 seconds later at least 30 shots are fired by the police.”
White says the family and he are withholding judgement until the investigation by the Wisconsin Department of Justice Division of Criminal Investigation concludes. However, they want some of the video evidence back.
“Eagle Nation had 5 cameras, and the Wisconsin DOJ has taken the video and we told them that once they had opportunity to make a clone of that hard drive, we requested that they turn that back over to us,” says White.
One thing White is adamant about, that the Neenah Police Department take responsibility for how it handled the response.
“Even if they don’t want to say that there’s wrongdoing, that a mistake was made,” White says. “I think that the lack of accountability is frankly disgusting.”
NEENAH’S MAYOR READY TO LEAD MOVING FORWARD
Neenah Mayor Dean Kaufert said Monday that he’s pleased with how his police department responded to such a tense situation, and the public sentiment reflects that.
“There’s investigation going on to make sure that the decision-making process was done property, but as far as the community the reaction I’m getting is pretty positive,” says Kaufert. “People were expecting to do a lot of business, there was one business that was impacted right next door and literally a big weekend for them was lost, but at the end of the day this is bigger than all that.”
Kaufert, who happened to be downtown at one of the businesses he owns at the time, got a front row seat to this incident unfolded.
“People need to know that the trained responders did exactly what they were supposed to do,” says Kaufert. “At this point, I’m really proud about how it was handled.”
As for Cole White and Eagle Nation Cycles owner Steve Erato speaking out against how everything was handled by law enforcement, Kaufert says everyone should be patient.
“The release of a lot of this information, I’m not going to question his motives, but I’m going to say it would be better for people to wait and see before they pass judgement,” says Kaufert.
Erato and Funk, represented by White, is currently involved in a $50 million federal lawsuit against the city of Neenah, Neenah police and Winnebago County. At issue is a September 2012 drug raid on Eagle Nation Cycles they say violated their civil rights.
