Mount Horeb police won’t be charged in shooting of student

The Dane County District Attorney announced Monday that police officers who fatally shot a student outside a Mount Horeb middle school will not face charges.

The 14-year-old student was killed outside the school May 1 after pointing a weapon at police. The gun turned out to be an air rifle.

Police were responding to a report of a person with a gun near the school. When officers arrived, they saw a large number of students sprinting from the building.

The boy arrived at school in the late morning armed, but never made it inside. 

No one else was harmed. But the event was terrifying for students and teachers who waited for hours on lockdown to be released to their families. 

In a statement, Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne said his office reviewed briefings from investigators, inspected the shooting scene, reviewed investigative reports, diagrams, photographs and other video evidence before making the decision. 

When police arrived at the school around 11:30 a.m., they saw the student carrying what they believe to be a black rifle with a synthetic stock and black barrel, according to the DA’s report. 

“The officer immediately began to yell commands to the subject to drop the rifle and to move away from the school,” according to the report. “The subject did not comply with the demands to drop the rifle and instead turned to pull on the door of the school again.”

The officer said he feared the student would go into the middle school with the gun. Instead, the student walked toward the officer with the rifle. He then pointed the rifle at the officer’s face, according to the DA’s report. 

“The officer continued to move around the squad for cover as the subject continued to move toward the officer,” the report said. “The officer fired one to two shots at the subject from about 20 yards away. The subject moved and the officer tried to keep the squad between them. The subject continued to not follow commands.”

That officer saw two squads with lights activated and believed shots were fired by other officers. The student was then on the ground, according to the report. 

When they removed the rifle from the student, they saw it was a Ruger air rifle. 

“Under these circumstances the air rifle possessed appeared to be a real firearm and the action of pointing it directly at law enforcement while advancing toward law enforcement was perceived to be a direct threat to the life of an officer,” Ozanne wrote. “Responding to that threat with deadly force is permitted under the law.”