GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) – A suspected Green Bay drug dealer who accidentally shot himself is facing multiple charges.
20-year-old Brian J. Vollmer is facing 8 counts, including possession of a firearm by a felon, drug possession and possession with intent to deliver heroin.
According to the criminal complaint, Green Bay police were called to the Tower Motel, 2625 Humboldt Road, around 2:30 p.m. on Sunday, February 7. The call was for a report of a man being shot in the arm and yelling for help.
The motel’s owner told police that the man, who was bleeding from his arm, had jumped into a minivan and drove off. The female driver was apparently going to take him to the hospital, but ended up pulling over in a business parking lot.
Officers first got a look inside the couple’s motel room and noticed a short-barreled shotgun on the floor under the bed. They also saw a lot of blood, bloody footprints outside of the room and blood spatter on the window. The plastic wad of a shotgun shell, along with shotgun pellets, were seen in the area of the window and a plastic chair.
Video surveillance showed officers a man carrying something out of the room and go to the passenger side of the minivan parked outside. The woman came out of the room right after, and both were carrying two plastic bags. Officers noticed some activity by the passenger side, and the woman drops the bags and rushes towards the man. The man then runs into the parking lot holding out his left arm as if something was wrong with it.
The woman is seen wrapping an orange blanket, before both enter the minivan and drive off. No other person appears in the video.
According to the complaint, investigators got a search warrant for both the motel room and a Bunker Hill Security Safe found inside the room. During a search of the room, officers found a Mossberg 20 gauge bolt action shotgun under the bed. There were spots of a red substance consistent with blood on the shotgun. There was also an empty shotgun shell in the breech of the weapon. The gun appeared shorter than what is lawful. The length of the barrel from the breech to the end of the barrel was 15-and-3/8-inches.
The safe was not provided as part of the room. A search of the safe, using a key found next to it, uncovered an empty Sprite can with multiple holes in it, which appeared to be a makeshift means of inhaling or smoking drugs. There were 4 digital scales in the safe, often used by drug sellers to break down larger quantities of drugs into smaller quantities for sale. There were 12 empty sandwich bags and bag corners, commonly used for repackaging illegal drugs. There were 2 empty glass tubes, pieces of a broken glass tube, Chore Boy Brillo pad and a metal rod, items that are normally used by crack cocaine users. There were 3 tablespoons and 1 teaspoon, with charred bottoms, commonly used to heat drugs in water for injecting. There was also 0.05 grams of loose green plant material on a piece of gray fabric, which later tested positive for THC.
Also inside that safe was a camouflage plastic zip lock bag labeled “Medical Cannabis,” that had a large wad of tin foil and 9 small squares of tin foil. Each tin foil square contained a brown colored chalky substance. The amount in each tin foil square ranged from 0.13 grams to 0.75 grams, totaling 2.16 grams. A sample of the substance tested positive for heroin.
A small zip lock plastic gem bag was also inside the safe. That contained a white powdery substance, which tested positive for cocaine. It weighed 4.5 grams.
A detective spoke with the woman at the hospital the next day, and told him that the safe belonged to her fiancée, identified as Brian J. Vollmer. She told authorities that Vollmer, “Uses crack cocaine and is very secretive about his business. If he was involved in drug sales, he would not let her know about it.”
Per the complaint, the woman told authorities that she had some garbage to take out before leaving the motel room to run errands. She took a step or two out the door, and then heard a shotgun behind her. She turned around and saw Vollmer with a gunshot wound to his left arm. The detective was told that she knew Vollmer had a shotgun wrapped in a blanket to bring out to the car that she didn’t want the shotgun in the room and Vollmer agreed to get rid of it.
She said Vollmer accidentally shot himself. He panicked and told her to call 911, which she did. Vollmer told her to tie off his arm. She tried using a blanket, but it was too big. She went inside to try and find something to use as a tourniquet. Vollmer, meanwhile, was outside walking in circles and told her to get the gun and put it away in the room. He kept screaming at her to get the gun, so she picked it up and brought it back to the room and put it under the bed.
Vollmer had been on the phone with 911 the entire time. Both got into the van, but she stopped and flagged down a police car.
Vollmer has prior convictions in Milwaukee and Washington counties for crimes like felony robbery with use of force, disorderly conduct and unlawful use of phone-threaten harm.
He’s due in court for a preliminary hearing on March 2. If convicted on all counts, Vollmer about 30 years in prison.
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