Green Bay police officer involved in fatal shooting at Brown County Jail

Paul Srubas , Doug Schneider | Green Bay Press Gazette

Show Caption Hide Caption Chief gives few details of officer-involved shooting Green Bay Police Chief Andrew Smith held a press conference regarding an incident in which police shot a man to death while trying to take him to jail.

GREEN BAY - It started with a routine traffic stop on a downtown Green Bay street Friday. It ended less than two hours later when city police shot a man dead at the Brown County Jail.

The man had been driving a car police stopped about 7:20 p.m. near the Hyatt Regency Green Bay, in the 300 block of Main St. The man was shot dead about 9:11 p.m. inside the sally port at the Brown County Jail at 3030 Curry Lane on the city's far east side, Chief Andrew Smith said at a news conference Saturday.

The officer who had stopped the car discovered the driver was the subject of a Brown County Sheriff's office felony arrest warrant, and took him into custody. Police also arrested a female passenger after discovering there was a warrant from the state Division of Corrections for her arrest, Smith said.

He said he did not know specifics of either warrant.

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Authorities have not released the names of the officers involved, or the person who was killed.

A training officer and a trainee from the department had driven the man, described as being in his mid-20s, to the jail, Smith said. He said the man and the woman were driven to the jail in separate squad cars.

Smith said officers from the Green Bay Police Department and the county Sheriff's Office saw the shooting occur. He said the incident might also have been captured on video from cameras inside one or more patrol cars at the scene of the shooting or cameras installed in the sally port itself.

Otherwise, officials said little Saturday about what happened during the 4.5-mile drive from the arrest scene to the jail, and Smith said he could not discuss specifics of what transpired in the sally port. But police radio transmissions posted online shed some light on what transpired:

» About 8:30 p.m., an officer radioed the county dispatch center, saying something unusual was taking place inside his patrol car.

"The male has something in his shirt," the officer said, "pointed up at his chin."

He did not say what the object was or describe it, but asked that officers grab "the shield" and bring it to the sally port — an enclosed, garage-like area where officers drive in, park and walk suspects into the jail's intake area for booking.

» Someone asks, "is this an emergency?" Other officers are assigned to the call.

» A few minutes after the first call, officers discuss how they're going to address the situation.

"At some point," one says, "we're going to have to get this guy out of here" — apparently a reference to the suspect in the squad car.

» One officer asks if the the man is "buckled in" via seatbelt. He is not, another officer responds.

» About 8:55 p.m., the officer radios that he can no longer see the face of the man in his patrol car.

"He has turned completely around in the squad," the officer says. "And he is facing toward the back window."

» A few minutes later, another officer radios to ask if he should bring "that beanbag gun" to the sally port. Beanbag rounds are sometimes used to incapacitate a suspect when nonlethal force is required, but the officer can't use a Taser.

» About 9:11 p.m., a call goes out from dispatch to Green Bay Metro Fire for a rescue squad "for possible shots fired" at the jail. Less than a minute later, a second rescue squad is assigned because it has just finished a call closer to the jail.

A police supervisor has a dispatcher call night-shift officers in to start their shifts early.

» About 9:15, officers at the jail say that the man who has been shot is unconscious, and CPR is being administered.

» About 9:20, an officer at the scene asks dispatchers to send the medical examiner to the jail.

Typically, officers search and handcuff suspects upon initial arrest, but Smith said he didn't know whether that protocol had been properly followed or whether this suspect's handcuffs had been removed for any reason prior to the shooting.

The shooting is being investigated by the state Department of Criminal Investigation. Since 2014, Wisconsin law has required police shootings to be investigated by a department other than the one directly involved.

DCI has not interviewed the officers, Smith said, and likely won't until about 48 hours after the shooting, per protocol. He said the body of the person who was shot would be taken to Madison for an autopsy.

Per department policy, the officers who were in the car with the man have been placed on paid leave. Three other officers may also be placed on leave, Smith said, though he did not say why.

This appears to be the first fatal shooting involving a Green Bay officer since 2015. Other fatal shootings involving officers in the Green Bay area in the past five years:

» Feb. 24, 2015: Officers shot and killed Joseph Biegert, 30, after he stabbed Officer Matthew Dunn in the arm with a kitchen knife in an incident on the city's west side.

The shooting occurred in Biegert's apartment building at 1511 Plymouth Lane; police had gone to the scene because Biegert's mother had asked them to check on his welfare. Investigators said the shooting was justified; county prosecutors declined to press charges.

» Sept. 9, 2014: Ashwaubenon Public Safety Officer Brian Murphy fatally shot 25-year-old robbery-suspect Justin Kuik of Two Rivers in a shootout outside a motel on Holmgren Way. Murphy had followed Kuik's car after noticing that it fit the description of the vehicle used in the Sept. 7 robbery of a Mishicot convenience store.

Authorities said the shooting was justified; no charges were lodged.

» Dec. 16, 2013: Darold Vanden Heuvel was shot and killed at an apartment complex on Green Bay's west side. Vanden Heuvel's estranged wife reported that he was loitering near her apartment, and that she feared for her safety.

Vanden Heuvel was shot when he reached for a handgun as Officers Clint Beguhn and Mark Opicka confronted him in a parking garage beneath the woman's apartment building. Authorities said the shooting was justified; no charges were filed.