Charges will not be filed against 2 Stevens Point officers involved in April 7 shooting

STEVENS POINT − The Portage County District Attorney's Office has determined no criminal charges will be filed against two police officers who fired their weapons during an incident with a 40-year-old man April 7.

The office decided Stevens Point Police Officers Alexander Beach and Zachary Gartmann were justified in the shooting given the circumstances at the time, according to a statement from Portage County District Attorney Cass Cousins.

Wisconsin Department of Criminal Investigation special agents interviewed all police officers present at the scene, watched video from officers' body cameras, interviewed witness and interviewed Nicholas E. Meyer, who shot at officers, according to a criminal complaint filed against Meyer for two counts of attempted first-degree intentional homicide.

During the early morning hours of April 7, a woman reported a man who she feared was going to try to come into her house in her yard near Fifth Avenue and Second Street in Stevens Point. The woman said each time she yelled out her window at the man, he'd run away but he would return.

The first officers to respond saw Meyer go into the service door of a garage carrying what looked like a rifle case. Police repeatedly ordered Meyer to come out of the garage with his hands showing, according to the statement.

When Beach and Gartmann arrived at the scene, the other officers told them where Meyer had gone and that he may be armed, according to the statement. Officers heard what they believed sounded like a gun being cocked and a bullet being chambered, according to the statement.

Beach and Gartmann took cover behind a pickup. Officers saw multiple muzzle flashes and heard several gunshots, according to the statement. Beach ducked behind the truck and yelled, "shots fired." He felt the shots had been aimed at him and Gartmann, and Beach feared for their lives. Beach stood up from behind the cover, aimed at Meyer and fired his rifle between three and 10 rounds, according to the statement.

Gartmann also saw and heard the gunshots and believed he and Beach would be shot and killed, according to the statement. Gartmann put the beanbag shotgun he was holding down, pulled out his handgun and also fired toward Meyer.

Meyer was hit once in the right side of his torso, according to the statement. He was taken for medical treatment. Meyer later told the special agents investigating the shooting that he thought the men in uniforms yelling for him to come out of the garage weren't real officers, according to the statement.

Meyer said he blocked the door with a crowbar and loaded a revolver in the garage. Once it was loaded, he opened the door and began firing, according to the statement. Meyer then went back into the garage and put the crowbar back on the door,

The special agents searched the garage and found the revolver Meyer described and a rifle case containing a semi-automatic rifle, a Marlin rifle and a Smith & Wesson 9 mm pistol, according to the statement.

Video from the officers' body cameras matched the accounts of the shooting given by the officers, according to the statement.

The special agents did a thorough investigation of the shooting, according to the statement. The review of the special agents' reports made it clear the force used by the officers was appropriate.

Police arrested Meyer when he was released from a hospital on April 8. Meyer's next court appearance is scheduled for June. 5.

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Contact Karen Madden at 715-345-2245 or kmadden@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @KMadden715, Instagram @kmadden715 or Facebook at www.facebook.com/karen.madden.33.

This article originally appeared on Stevens Point Journal: Stevens Point police officers will not be charged in April 7 shooting