A Sparta police sergeant who shot a man Jan. 19 acted in self-defense and will not be prosecuted, Monroe County District Attorney Dan Cary announced Thursday.
Jacob Olsen, 19, pointed a hunting rifle at Sgt. Booker Ferguson outside 416 Austin St. and refused the officer's repeated orders to drop the weapon, Cary concluded after reviewing the evidence. Ferguson had no option but to shoot Olsen, he said.
Ferguson, a nine-year veteran of the department, was placed on leave after the shooting but has returned to work.
Olsen confronted the sergeant with the rifle outside the Austin Street house after police responded to a 911 hang-up call. Olsen raised the barrel five feet from Ferguson before the officer shot him twice, once in the chest and abdomen.
Olsen was hospitalized but later recovered and was charged in Monroe County Circuit Court with six crimes, including intentionally pointing a firearm at a law enforcement officer, first-degree reckless endangerment and possession of a firearm while intoxicated. He had a 0.24 percent blood-alcohol concentration after the incident, according to the complaint.
Earlier in the day, Olsen crashed his father's car into a retaining wall at the end of a neighbor's driveway, drove through the backyard and hit a shed before stopping the car in a drainage ditch, the complaint states. He also is charged with driving with a suspended license.
Copyright 2012 - La Crosse Tribune, Wis.
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
