APPLETON — Appleton police are crediting cooperation among multiple law enforcement agencies with helping track down a man who was menacing a storefront along College Avenue this past week with a long gun.
The Appleton Police Department on its social media pages gave a shout out Saturday the officers who worked together during the rapidly evolving situation to safely remove a dangerous individual from the streets.
The incident began this past week when police responded to a disturbance at a downtown restaurant where someone was reportedly hitting the windows of the business with a rifle, striking the windows with such force it caused the rifle’s wooden stock to break in half.
The suspect discarded the rifle and left in a vehicle before officers arrived, according to a news release published Sunday by the Appleton Police Department.
Officers quickly located the suspect vehicle and attempted to conduct a traffic stop, but the vehicle fled at a high rate of speed, attempting to elude officers by driving in the wrong lane of traffic down College Avenue.
Due to the safety concerns presented by this driving behavior, officers say they ended the pursuit to reduce the risk of a crash.
Following this incident, police were made aware by a neighboring jurisdiction of a report earlier in the day involving the same suspect pointing a firearm at vehicles. Information was also obtained about a disturbance that occurred just prior to this incident where the suspect allegedly pointed a firearm at a family member.
A short while later the suspect’s vehicle was again located, and due the new information and the overwhelming concern for public safety based on the suspect’s continued acts, a vehicle pursuit was initiated. Multiple agencies assisted in various capacities during this pursuit.
The vehicle eventually came to a stop a short distance into Shawano County where the suspect was taken into police custody without further incident.
Two additional firearms were located inside the vehicle. Police were later contacted by another neighboring jurisdiction regarding a burglary investigation where the suspect was believed to have stolen the various firearms recovered in this incident.
The suspect in this incident was confined at the Outagamie County Jail on numerous criminal charges, according to the news release.
Appleton police say the incident serves to illustrate the real-time calculations made by officers based on the information available, continuously monitoring public safety concerns and officer accountability.
