Sheriff: Lincoln County Deputy Shot Man Who Showed Weapon In Traffic Stop

A deputy shot a 46-year-old Merrill man during a traffic stop after the man opened the door of his vehicle and showed a weapon, according to a news release from the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office.

The shooting happened Saturday night. The sheriff’s office on Monday morning released new details.

The man was wanted following a “domestic related incident,” according to the release. Deputies stopped his car on Wisconsin Highway 64 in the town of Corning, which is just west of Merrill in central Wisconsin. After police saw him open the car door with a weapon inside, a deputy shot him.

Lt. Tim Fischer said in one statement that the man was flown from the scene with injuries. According to Monday’s release, the man remains in the hospital and is in stable condition. Police have not released the man’s identity.

The deputy who shot the man has been placed on administrative leave while the incident is investigated. Police did not release the deputy’s name, but the release said he is a 13-year law enforcement veteran.

The state Division of Criminal Investigation, a division of the state Department of Justice, is investigating. It is Wisconsin law that an outside agency investigate deaths involving police, and in general nonfatal shootings are investigated by outside agencies, too. The DOJ will release its investigative reports and evidence to the Lincoln County district attorney when its investigation concludes.

The DOJ on Thursday released its report on the deaths of two brothers in a crash in Columbia County after police used spike strips to stop a high-speed chase on Interstate 39. There have been nine fatal shootings by law enforcement in Wisconsin in 2019, according to The Washington Post, which tracks police shootings. These include a shooting of a man in Arpin in June after he grabbed a knife, and a shooting in May in Milwaukee of an armed man police came upon in a search for a homicide suspect.

Also in May, a firefighter was killed and a police officer and one other person wounded in a shooting at an Appleton transit center. In Racine, an off-duty police officer was shot and killed in June after he intervened in a robbery at a bar.

In central Wisconsin in May, police shot and wounded a 55-year-old Curtiss man after he drove his car into a police officer in a motel parking lot in Abbotsford.

Editor’s note: The Associated Press contributed reporting to this story.