GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) – Two Green Bay police officers were justified in the shooting death of a man earlier this year.
Brown County District Attorney David Lasee made that determination Friday in the death of 30-year-old Joseph Biegert.
You can read the entire report here.
Back on February 24 around 7:30 p.m., officers were called to Biegert’s apartment in the 1500 block of Plymouth Lane to perform a welfare check. Biegert’s mom had called authorities worried that her son was suicidal and taking pills.
Lasee says as officers performed the check and a search, things escalated quickly and a struggled ensued.
“Initially he was cooperative with that, but with a short time frame, things escalated a great deal,” Lasee said during a news conference. “I would say within a matter of 4 or 5 minutes after the initial contact.”
Lasee went on to describe that despite the situation quickly getting out of control in the kitchen area, Green Bay police officers Matthew Dunn and Brian Krueger didn’t immediately go for their guns.
“They tried hand-to-hand resources to attempt to gain control, they couldn’t do so, and they attempted to deploy Tasers. That was unsuccessful, attempted to use a baton,” said Lasee. “Mr. Biegert was able to gain the upper hand and ended up obtaining a knife from a butcher block that was on the counter.”
Lasee says Officer Dunn did suffer a stab wound as Biegert lashed out at both cops with the knife, which then led to both Dunn and Krueger shooting and killing Biegert.
Both officers were treated and released from the hospital for their injuries.
They were put on administrative leave in the wake of the shooting. Police Chief Tom Molitor says Dunn returned to duty May 14, but Krueger is still recovering and has not returned to duty.
The state Department of Justice investigated the shooting and forwarded the results to Lasee to decide whether to file criminal charges against the officers.
