'You take the guy's word for it': Police say shooter's story was credible

Linh Ta | The Des Moines Register

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An auto body shop owner's account of what happened before he opened fire and fatally wounded a burglar at the shop last week was sufficiently credible for investigators to decide not to seek criminal charges, a police spokesman said.

Surveillance cameras at the business were not positioned to record the fatal confrontation outside, and there were no witnesses. Some physical evidence supported the owner's story, police said.

"You take the guy's word for it," Des Moines police spokesman Sgt. Paul Parizek said. "You can tell when someone's relating a story to you that's truthful."

Detectives interviewed Thomas Kraft, 67, on July 12, a day after the shooting. Kraft told police he feared for his life when Amund Benjamin Haarstad, 37, of Fergus Falls, Minnesota, threatened to kill him after he had gone into Kraft's business overnight and apparently collected items to steal.

Kraft's explanation of the encounter, along with physical evidence at the scene, led police to believe the shooting was self-defense, Parizek said.

Haarstad died at Kraft 5 Star Muffler on Army Post Road after a bullet Kraft fired at the ground ricocheted and hit him in the back of the head, police said July 13.

A news release announcing that Kraft was not a criminal suspect included a brief timeline of the encounter, described as what "detectives have determined." The details in the timeline closely resemble those in a statement Kraft's attorney had released earlier on July 13.

Kraft was alerted to the overnight burglary at his shop by a notification on his phone at about 4:30 a.m. When Kraft watched the surveillance camera in real time at about 7 a.m., it appeared no one was inside the business. He went to the store and found Haarstad with $50,000 worth of stolen tools in his truck.

Mark Weinhardt, an attorney for Kraft, said his client retreated two times in hopes that Haarstad would leave his business before retrieving a pistol he kept at work for protection and firing the fatal shot outside the store.

Surveillance footage from a neighboring business viewed by a Des Moines Register reporter last week shows a man who appears to be Haarstad collapsing face-first outside of Kraft 5 Star Muffler at about 7:16 a.m. Wednesday.

The footage shows him running south on the east side of the business before suddenly collapsing on the ground. No gunfire is visible. The police news release did not specify what Haarstad was doing before Kraft fired; Weinhardt said that "the burglar again threatened to kill Tom, even as he was starting to move. He appeared to have an object in his hand."

Investigators found a mark on the ground outside that corroborated Kraft's claim that he fired his shot in that direction. Inside the store, they also found a note left by Haarstad that primarily comprised of "gibberish," Parizek said.

The note mocked Kraft about breaking into his business and was signed with Haarstad's initials, Parizek said.

"When you start looking at the big picture and the totality of the circumstances, it’s not hard to believe he made the comments that Mr. Kraft said," Parizek said. "He was erratic in his behavior and not clear in his thinking."

Emilyn Haugen, Haarstad's sister, said police notified her family about the encounter that is said to have led up to the final shot.

She said her family feels sorry for Kraft over what happened.

"We lost our brother, but we're sure they're going through a lot, too," Haugen said.