GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) – As the entire Northeast Wisconsin community continues to mourn the loss of Mitch Lundgaard, the Green Bay Police Department is still hard at work conducting an investigation into the case.
“It’s the biggest, most complicated, investigations we do are officer-involved shooting investigations,” explains Green Bay Police Chief Andrew Smith.
For the Green Bay Police Department, their involvement in the case began almost as soon as the news first broke about the incident.
“We sent our Detective Commander, all our Detective Supervisors, just about our whole detective squad room down to Appleton on that night,” he explains. “They spent virtually the whole night down there conducting this investigation.”
Not only are the two police departments close geographically, but they also have forged a working bond in cases such as these.
“When we got the call that there was a shooting, an officer-involved shooting in Appleton, we have an M.O.U., or contract, with Appleton where they’ll investigate our shootings and we’ll investigate their shootings,” explains Chief Smith.
A major goal in having a seperate department conduct the investigation is to eliminate any perceived, real or not, bias that may exist with an internal investigation.
“I think that’s a good idea,” says Chief Smith. “You get a better perspective if you’re an outside agency coming in and I think you get a less bias investigation, I think it’s better all around.”
In terms of a timetable right now, there really isn’t one.
Chief Smith says interviews are still being conducted and in a high-profile case such as this, where an officer-involved shooting turns fatal, it’s vitally important to leave no stone left unturned.
Meaning that in the end, the Appleton Police Department should have every resource necessary at their disposal.
“They’ll submit a report to Appleton for their evaluation at the end, that has all the interviews, all the forensics evidence, all the medical evidence,” he says.
