La Crosse Police Fatally Shoot Man After Carjacking

Two La Crosse police officers shot and killed a white man suspected of stealing a vehicle Sunday evening from a woman and her two children.

Police were responding to a report from a mother of a carjacking at Houska Park. The woman told police a white male approached her when she was in her vehicle and showed a gun before stealing it.

The woman told the La Crosse Tribune the carjacker “put the gun through the driver’s side window,” and told her to get out. The woman was able to get herself and her 3-year-old daughter out of the vehicle, but her 1-year-old daughter was still in a car seat when the man took off.

Police were dispatched at 5:10 p.m., and within minutes of the incident being reported, authorities found the stolen vehicle. The man led officers on a short car chase, eventually crashing into a parked car near Eighth and Johnson streets, according to a La Crosse Police Department release.

The man killed was not obeying police orders as officers approached the vehicle, and when officers saw a handgun in the vehicle, the two officers were “forced to fire their weapons,” the release states.

The man was taken to a local hospital, where he died at 6:03 p.m., according to the release. The 1-year-old and officers were not injured.

The two officers involved in the fatal shooting are on paid administrative leave, as is department policy. The Wisconsin Division of Criminal Investigation is investigating the shooting per state law.

The identity of the officers and the man shot have not been released.