Fourth of July Freak-Out Ends in Shooting

A Brookfield man’s Independence Day freak-out has landed him in jail after he made verbal threats to kill his family.

The 48-year-old man, who Patch is not identifying to protect his family’s identity, was charged Tuesday in Waukesha County Circuit Court with negligent handling of a weapon, possession of a firearm while intoxicated, pointing a firearm at another person, disorderly conduct, telephone harassment and contact after a domestic abuse arrest. If convicted of all the misdemeanor charges, he faces up to 3-1/2 years in prison and $42,000 fines.

Waukesha County deputies were dispatched to a business on Jericho Drive in City of Pewaukee at 11:47 p.m. July 4 after receiving a report of a man firing shots in the air. The suspect had left the scene in a Chevy truck and was described as being either intoxicated or under the influence of drugs, the complaint states.

Witnesses told police the family returned to the business with concession equipment after being at the fireworks in Mitchell Park in Brookfield. When they arrived, they found the man in a rage and threatening to destroy his wife’s belongings, the complaint states.

The man pulled out a gun, shot three times in the air and then pointed the weapon at his son and his son’s friend, witnesses told deputies, according to the complaint.

The man’s wife told deputies she had no idea why he was acting this way because they were living together and no divorce proceedings were taking place. He was sober for a long time but recently started drinking and possibly doing drugs, she told deputies, according to the complaint.

The man was taken into custody during a traffic stop at Jericho Drive and Springdale Road. He denied pointing a gun at anyone or shooting a gun, telling deputies he had lit fireworks at the business.

The man failed part of a sobriety test and a blood sample was taken from him, the complaint states.

Deputies found empty bowls with marijuana residue in it, a gun in a tote on a shelf and a recently fired gun in a trash bin while executing a search warrant at the business, the complaint states.

The man was ordered to not contact his wife for 72 hours. But on Saturday, he sent his wife a text messaged and started sending his son text messages, asking him to give the messages to his mother. The son refused his father’s request, so the father called him, the complaint states.

The man threatened on the phone to kill the son with a handgun, telling him he had a gun that wasn’t confiscated by the Waukesha County deputies. The man then threatened to kill the rest of the family, according to the complaint.

A family friend later told a Brookfield police officer that the angered man was ranting about his family, his cars, that no one was to use his cars and that the entire family needed to move out of his home so he could flush the past 28 years of his life away, the complaint states. The friend also told officers that the man made the following threatening comment his son: “I brought him into this world and I can take him out.”