John Fauber
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
KENOSHA, Wisc. — Sheriff’s Department tactical squad officers early Sunday shot and killed an armed 21-year-old Town of Randall man who had led them on a chase in his pickup truck.
A sheriff’s spokesman said David Estes had been drinking and had been in an argument with his wife when he left their home about 8:30 p.m. Saturday armed with a handgun and three long-barreled guns.
Estes’ wife said he was going to kill himself before he drove away in his red pickup truck, said Sheriff’s Lt. Paul Falduto.
About 9 p.m. a sheriff’s deputy spotted Estes in his truck near Paddock Lake. The deputy followed him for several miles and called for additional squads to help pull him over.
Estes refused to stop and led the squads on a pursuit at speeds between 35 and 65 mph.
“He pretty much kept within the speed limit,” Falduto said. “He just never pulled over.”
Several attempts to stop the truck using stop strips, devices with spikes that can be put on the road to cause flat tires, failed because the man avoided the strips, Falduto said. Finally, Estes ran over a strip, and his truck stopped about 9:40 p.m. near Highway C west of Highway 83.
A negotiator was brought in to get him to give up and come out of his truck. For more than 2 1/2 hours the negotiator talked to Estes, both on a cell phone and in face-to-face contact.
About 12:15 a.m. he made a threatening movement with a rifle at the officers, Falduto said. “It is possible he may have gotten off a shot,” he said.
Over the course of the incident Estes made several threatening gestures, said Sgt. Gil Benn. “All of our officers practiced restraint,” Benn said.
However, when Estes pointed the rifle toward the officers, five of the officers fired at him, Benn said. Benn said he could not say how many shots were fired or how many times the man was hit.
The Racine County Sheriff’s Department was investigating the shooting.
Estes was taken to St. Catherine’s Medical Center in Pleasant Prairie, where he was pronounced dead at 1:07 a.m.
Benn said Estes has a “long history” of violent confrontations with police and others, and public Internet records show convictions for disorderly conduct, obstructing an officer and most recently battery.
Copyright 2007 The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel