Gunman found not guilty
He claimed self-defense in killing near police station
After more than 300,000 Wisconsin residents obtained permits to carry concealed firearms since 2011, it was only a matter of time before some started using the weapons in ways gun rights advocates said would allow citizens to protect themselves.
One of them, 65-year-old Randall Drescher of Milwaukee, was found not guilty Tuesday in the fatal shooting of an unarmed stranger outside a police station last summer after Drescher said he feared an aggressive younger man meant him serious harm.
Drescher was charged with first-degree reckless homicide because prosecutors said it was unreasonable to use deadly force against Reed E. Carlsen, who had not threatened Drescher but had hit him with a rubber traffic cone.
“It’s really not self-defense,” Assistant District Attorney Paul Tiffin told jurors in his closing argument. “In some ways, he executed him.” But the jury, which included at least one concealed weapon permit holder, clearly disagreed, reaching a verdict in about 20 minutes.
Defense attorney Christian Thomas had stressed to jurors that under Wisconsin law, Drescher had no duty to retreat from an irrational “maniac” who had been escalating the encounter. “Was the threat real enough? You all know it was.”
Drescher had testified that Carlsen, 42, of West Allis, had approached him and a friend as they sat in the friend’s van waiting to meet someone selling a shotgun over the internet. Out of nowhere, Drescher testified, Carlsen accused them of staring at him or being undercover police in a profane, angry and belligerent way.
After finally walking away, Carlsen grabbed a large rubber traffic cone, and rammed it through the open passenger window of the van, hitting Drescher and knocking a phone out of his friend’s hands as he was dialing 911.
The men testified they sat stunned and fearful until Carlsen walked a good distance away before Drescher got out to put the cone back in place in front of the District 6 station on the south side. That’s when he saw Carlsen turn around and come at him.
Drescher testified he has bad knees and can’t run and felt he didn’t have enough time to get back to the van or into the station. Instead, he assumed “a good, solid stance,” and glared at Carlsen but got no reaction.
That’s when Drescher drew his .40caliber Sig Sauer pistol and pointed it at Carlsen, assuming he would turn and retreat. Instead, Drescher said, Carlsen only laughed and kept coming.
“I was scared to death,” Drescher said, because he feared Carlsen would “beat me up, put me in a coma, maybe kill me.” When Carlsen got within just a few feet, Drescher fired.
“I gave him as much chance I could,” he said. “When all else failed, I had to shoot the guy.”
Right after, Drescher put his gun in the van and went to the District 6 station to say he’d shot someone, and was arrested.
He and his friend were the key witnesses; there was no surveillance video from the police station that might have shown the encounter.
Carlsen died from a shot to the heart and one to his scrotum. A third shot grazed his buttocks.