Armor-piercing ammo, 13 guns found at site of standoff

By BILL SCHANEN IV

Ozaukee Press staff

Investigators found 13 guns and ammunition — including armor-piercing rounds — in the house of a Fredonia man who terrorized his neighborhood and held authorities at bay for 38 hours before surrendering on Saturday, May 10, Ozaukee County Sheriff Christy Knowles said Monday.

Meanwhile, the  37-year-old man who lived on Fox Glen Road remained at a secure state mental health institution earlier this week and as of Tuesday had not yet been charged in Ozaukee County Circuit Court.

Knowles said he is scheduled to make his initial court appearance on Thursday, May 22, although it is not known whether he will appear via video from the mental health institution or be transferred to Ozaukee County to appear in person or via video from the jail.

“Even if he continues on a psych hold, we will go ahead with the charges,” Knowles said. “We’re not going to wait any longer.”

The Sheriff’s Office is seeking multiple felony counts of making threats to law enforcement officers, first-degree recklessly endangering safety and failure to obey officers, she said.

Authorities are also investigating whether there are grounds to charge him with making terrorist threats. That, Knowles said, will depend in part on what they find on the electronic devices seized from the house.

“Those will be analyzed to see whether he was, for instance, communicating with extremist groups or if he researched how to modify weapons to make them automatic,” she said.

Authorities had to wait to search the home until Wednesday, May 14, because a contractor first had to shore up the house, which was breached repeatedly by authorities so they could see the man holed up on the second floor, and so it could be swept for explosives.

Of the 13 guns found, nine were rifles and four were handguns, Knowles said. She does not know specifically what type of guns were found because they are in the custody of the Wisconsin Department of Justice’s Division of Criminal Investigation, which is assisting with the investigation and will inventory the evidence found in the home.

Knowles said that none of the guns were manufactured as automatic weapons but authorities are checking to see if they were modified to make them automatic weapons.

Although the man withstood multiple rounds of tear gas canisters being shot into his house, he did not have a gas mask or body armor, Knowles said. No explosives were found but authorities recovered night vision goggles and thermal optics from the house.

The man, who has no history of military service, moved into the two-story house at 139 Fox Glen Rd., in a residential area on the village’s south side in June 2024 with his girlfriend, Knowles said. She later left.

The house, it is believed, is so badly damaged that it cannot be salvaged, “although that was at first glance,” Knowles said. It has been turned over to the man’s family.

Investigators will interview the man’s family, who Knowles described as “extremely cooperative,” and his ex-girlfriend in an effort to determine what caused him to trigger the standoff by shooting guns from his home and playing loud music.

Deputies had prior contact with the man during which they confirmed there were guns in the home, and on Monday Knowles said that contact was related to temporary retraining orders against him.

A search of online court records showed the man doesn’t have a criminal record in Wisconsin, although a civil petition seeking a restraining order was filed against him in November 2024 by the father of the man’s former fiancee, who alleged the man kept assault weapons in an upstairs bedroom of the house, according to the petition. A temporary restraining order was granted but the petition was dismissed by stipulation of both parties before a judge ruled on a permanent injunction.

The standoff, which caused some area residents to leave their homes and others to shelter in their basements for fear that high-powered rounds fired by the man could penetrate their houses, ended at 12:30 p.m. May 10 when authorities, who by this time were running out of options, flushed him out of the home.

“We actually used water ... essentially an unmanned fire hose,” Knowles said during a May 12 briefing, adding that by then officers had used stun grenades, tear gas, battering rams, drones, messages from his family and wailing sirens to try and persuade the man to surrender.

“We used almost every tactical approach possible to allow the suspect to surrender peacefully,” she said. “We were scraping the bottom. We were thinking, ‘What else can we do to get this guy out of the house?’”

The patience and perseverance of officers — and ultimately a fire hose — averted a tragedy, she said.

“No one was killed,” Knowles said. “The primary goal in a situation like this is preservation of life. Our top priority for the entire duration of this incident was the safety of the community, law enforcement personnel and the individual.”

Knowles acknowledged that questions have been raised about the length of the standoff and said its duration was the result of a calculated approach intended to protect officers and residents.

“I’m extremely proud of how officers handled this situation,” she said.

Authorities knew the man was holed up on the second floor of the two-story house throughout the standoff, and officers had every door and window in the home covered, she said.

“We had 360-degree coverage on that home,” Knowles said. “The suspect was not leaving.

“As long as he remained in his home, we were confident the community was safe.”

But, Knowles said, she was not confident officers would be safe if they entered the house.

“The suspect said continuously that he would kill or shoot anyone who entered the home, including law enforcement,” she said. “That would have been the unintended consequence if we had decided to rush in.

“I will do everything in my power to make sure I don’t have to tell an officer’s parent, an officer’s wife or their children they died because we chose to rush in to take care of the threat inside when we had that threat controlled from the outside.”

The incident began to unfold at 8:30 p.m. Thursday, May 8, when multiple residents in the area called 911 to report shots being fired from the man’s home.

Deputies responded to the area, but did not hear gunshots. Then at 10:30 p.m., authorities called the man, who admitted playing loud music and firing guns from his home, she said.

“The suspect stated he was going to continue playing music, and if anyone came to his residence, he would shoot them,” Knowles said. “He expressed his dismay for government, and shortly after the phone conversation, deputies heard multiple gunshots coming from the residence.”

Kristine Jones, who lives on Partridge Lane kitty-corner from the man’s house, heard them too.

“I thought at first that someone was shooting off fireworks,” she said. “Nobody would imagine that someone would be shooting a gun in our neighborhood.

“There was some pretty rapid fire, then we got the notice to shelter in place.”

A large police presence that included officers from multiple departments led by the Ozaukee County Sheriff’s Office was assembled. At one point during the standoff, the Ozaukee County Special Response Team was temporarily relieved by SWAT teams from Washington and Milwaukee counties, as well as members of the Franklin Police Department SWAT team, to allow members of the Ozaukee unit to rest.

Knowles said authorities used “anxiety manipulation” tactics in an effort to break the man’s will to remain holed up. At one point, electricity was cut off to the neighborhood and loud sirens sounded at night to keep him awake.

“The suspect became agitated whenever we changed a tactic, but he would quickly acclimate himself to his surroundings and calm down,” she said. “He was continuously up and down.”

Throughout the standoff, authorities maintained a dialog with the man using a public address system, Knowles said.

“It worked,” she said. “He commented back. A lot of times it wasn’t very nice, but in a situation like this we understand that.”

A message from the man’s family was also played over the PA system.

  As the standoff wore on, officers began breeching the house with battering rams, armored vehicles and other devices — a move that proved key to forcing the man’s surrender, Knowles said.

With large holes in the house, officers could see the man on the second floor as well as the only staircase leading to that floor.

“With our drones, we were able to see some of the weapons in the house, and there were a lot,” Knowles said. “There was a lot of firepower in that home.”

Growing frustrated by the man’s resolve to remain in the house, authorities got creative.

“My team came up with, “Let’s use water,’” Knowles said. “We’ve seen this in our training.”

With the help of the Port Washington and Fredonia fire departments, a ground monitor — which Knowles described as an unmanned fire hose — was brought in and officers were quickly trained how to use it. The first attempt to use it to flush the man out was unsuccessful, but then more holes were knocked in the house.

“Once we opened up the house and were able to see where he was, he got direct pressure (from the hose) and that ultimately led him to come out,” Knowles said.