Fond du Lac County District Attorney Eric Toney said during a March 25 joint press conference with Fond du Lac County Sheriff Ryan Waldschmidt that his office found no basis to issue criminal charges against Deputy Blaine Evans and that the deputy’s actions were in self defense.
Oct. 14, city police officers and county deputies responded in the early morning to a disturbance involving weapons in the 500 block of Drury Place, where a man inside a vehicle exchanged gunfire with Deputy Evans.
The man, 34-year-old Kyle Massie, was treated for injuries but died on scene, and Fond du Lac County Sheriff’s Office police dog Iro was seriously injured during the incident and treated at a veterinary hospital. Evans was placed on administrative leave, per agency policy.
The DOJ’s Division of Criminal Investigation investigated the incident with assistance from the Wisconsin State Crime Laboratory, the Wisconsin State Patrol and a DCI Crime Response Specialist.
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Timeline of events shows gunfire lasted just more than a minute
Waldschmidt said Evans had five minutes left in his shift when a woman called 911 at 5:54 a.m. and said she had been held against her will by Massie and had managed to escape, and that Massie had guns.
Evans, who had read the comments over the dispatcher’s shoulder, set out with Iro in his squad car and found Massie’s vehicle a few minutes later, following it with emergency lights and sirens activated. Massie’s vehicle did not stop, even after Evans attempted a precision immobilization technique maneuver.
When Massie drove into his Drury Place driveway off Western Avenue and crashed through the half-closed garage door, Evans parked his squad car partially in the driveway. He exited the squad car with police dog Iro and called out multiple warnings as Massie started to get out of his car with an “AR”-style rifle, Toney said.
Evans sent Iro into the garage, and Massie opened fire first at Iro, then at Evans. The two exchanged gunfire before Massie backed his car out of the garage and struck the front of the squad car. Gunfire resumed, until the final gunshot at 6:13 a.m., determined to be fired by Massie and self-inflicted.
The time between Evans exiting his squad car and the final gunshot was 67 seconds. He fired 45 rounds, and though two had struck Massie, neither was fatal. Massie fired 11 times.
Immediately after the incident, personnel attempted life-saving efforts on Massie, but he died from the self-inflicted gunshot wound.
The Fond du Lac Police Department found the woman who had escaped Massie’s residence just before the incident and took her to the department for a statement. Waldschmidt believes Massie had been on his way to look for her when Evans found him.
Toney added Massie had no known criminal convictions.
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Iro and Evans will be back in action together sometime this year
Waldschmidt said Massie had every opportunity to surrender, and Evans defended himself to stop the threat. Additionally, without Iro, more bullets would have been fired not only at Evans, but also toward the residences behind him.
“I know many in our community are very thankful for those people who are willing to, even at the end of their shift, move into harm’s way, not knowing what they’re going to face, but knowing there’s somebody that needs help,” he said.
After the incident, Evans cared for Iro in the garage, who had been shot multiple times. Fond du Lac Police Officer Charles Beckford, a police dog handler himself, was one of the officers to assist in treating him at the scene.
Deputy Michael Vis, also a handler, used his K-9-equipped squad car to transport Iro, Evans and Beckford to Blue Pearl Pet Hospital in Grand Chute. Grand Chute Police Department officers assisted once the squad car exited off the highway.
With multiple surgeries and other life-saving measures, veterinarians stabilized Iro, and one was able to offer a blood transfusion with the help of their own dog.
Iro continues to recover and is undergoing physical therapy. Waldschmidt said the department has every reason to believe he will return to duty once he’s medically cleared, sometime this year.
“When he came into my office last week, like he often does, he was nosing the air, sniffing around,” he said. “He’s not going to find drugs in my office, but he was sniffing for drugs, he was doing his thing.”
Following his administrative leave, Evans will return to work in a hybrid fashion without Iro, until Iro is fully recovered.
Evans has five years of law enforcement service and has been Iro’s handler since April 2022. The police dog has been deployed with him 143 times, resulting in locating 417 grams of marijuana, 105 grams of cocaine, 4.4 grams of heroin, 444 grams of fentanyl, 64 grams of methamphetamine, 326 grams of psilocybin (mushrooms), 215 prescription pills, 12 guns; participating in numerous searches for missing persons and fleeing suspects; and seizing more than $1,500 in cash.
Contact reporter Daphne Lemke at dlemke@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Fond du Lac Reporter: Deputy cleared in Fond du Lac officer-involved shooting on Drury Place