Police in Marshfield, Wis., used less lethal bean bag rounds and a K9 to take down a suspect who chased two social workers from his home with a pair of knives and threw one of those knives at their car. He then ignored commands to drop the remaining knife during a 10-minute standoff.
Suspect Ignores Commands
After getting a call from the social workers, Marshfield police officers arrived to find 52-year-old Patrick Langreck holding the knife on the street in front of his house. The video above shows him walking toward the officers while holding the knife.
“Pat, stay there. I don’t want you to get hurt,” one officer can be heard saying.
“Pat, put that knife down,” an officer says.
Bean Bag Rounds
Langreck doesn’t comply with those orders. Instead, he continues inching closer to the officers. At that point, the officers made the decision to deploy less-lethal bean bag rounds to subdue him.
“Behind the squad car the officers don’t have any cover so we had to try to subdue him. The entire time the individual has the knife in his hand he is a threat, at any time he could change his direction. We’re within 25 feet here,” Marshfield Police Lieutenant Jody Geurink told WSAW.
In the video, an officer fires off a bean bag round, appearing to strike Langreck in the upper right leg. Langreck keeps coming, so the officer fires a second bean bag round, again hitting him in the lower part of the body. After firing a third round, a K9 swoops in and takes Langreck down to the ground.
The officers took Langreck into custody and transferred to the Wood County Jail after he was medically cleared, the Marshfield News Herald reported.
Praise
Marshfield Mayor Bob McManus is praising the officers’ actions that day.
“They made split-second decisions that were absolutely brilliant,” McManus said. “If you hear on the tape, you can hear them saying, ‘stop, put the weapon down,’ they just continued with the escalation. So we couldn’t be prouder of our officers in Marshfield,” McManus said.
“You know, in review of everything there, it just shows why we in Marshfield are so proud of all of our men and women behind that badge. And I’ve got to give a shout out to our great chief Rick Gramza. This is a testament to the training and department that he runs,” McManus added.
Geurick said his department appreciates the support from city officials.
“This is another case where we responded appropriately, and it is nice to have the commendations and the support,” he said. “Our officer safety is always paramount. This is just a situation that worked out for the best for us and also this individual.”
Langreck, who was on parole for two prior convictions of theft by false representation and criminal damage to property, is now facing four felony counts of reckless endangerment. He’s also been charged with one count of obstructing an officer. His bond has been set at $50,000.
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