A Marathon County Sheriff’s Office deputy was involved in a fatal shooting following an armed hostage situation early Thursday morning in the town of Rib Mountain, just south of Wausau.
The deputy shot and killed 33-year-old John Hall after two and a half hours of negotiations, according to a statement by the Wisconsin Department of Justice.
The name of the deputy has not been released. The deputy has been a law enforcement officer for seven years, and was not injured in the incident, according to the press release.
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The sheriff’s office, Wausau Police Department and Rothschild Police Department responded to the call of an armed hostage situation in the area of Morning Glory Lane and Swan Avenue, an exact time was not given in the release.
Emergency vehicles were on scene until about noon Thursday, and Jim Palmer, executive director of the Wisconsin Professional Police Association, was on scene part of the day.
“Our preliminary assessment is that the deputy exercised great restraint and every effort was made by the officers … to de-escalate the situation,” Palmer said in a statement.
The Wisconsin Department of Justice’s Division of Criminal Investigation is investigating the incident, as is required by state law, and the officer is on paid administrative leave pending the investigation completion, which is also standard procedure.
It is the second fatal shooting involving a central Wisconsin sheriff’s deputy this week.
On Monday, a Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office Deputy shot and killed a Wausau man during a confrontation on a rural highway southwest of Merrill.
Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to include the name of the man shot and killed.
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