Kurt E. Prochaska, a Janesville man tore an exhaust fan off the roof of Dr Michael Rainiero's home.
"Both the homeowner and Prochaska are at opposite ends of the hallway. The homeowner verbally challenges him, tells him to leave, to get out," Davis [Lt. Danny Davis, head of Janesville police detectives.] said.
This morning, investigators still had not talked with Prochaska, but Davis said Rainiero told officers that after ordering Prochaska out of the house, Prochaska stepped into a bathroom off the hallway.
"That's when the homeowner retreated to the bedroom and got his gun," Davis said.
Rainiero told police he loaded the .380-caliber semiautomatic pistol that he keeps in his bedroom and cocked a shell into the chamber, Davis said.
"When the homeowner stepped back into the hallway with his firearm, Prochaska emerged from the bathroom and was now back in the hallway," Davis said.
Rainiero told police he verbally challenged the intruder again, Davis said.
"When Prochaska did not respond to the homeowner's request to leave, the homeowner shot him," Davis said.
Wisconsin law doesn't allow people to use deadly force to defend property, and offers Dr Rainiero no protection from a civil lawsuit.
A man, Dr. Michael Rainiero, with his wife and three daughters in the house, hears a crashing sound in his home in the middle of the night and goes to investigate and finds a man, Kurt Prochaska, in the hall of his home. He yells several times to “get out.” He was loud enough that neighbors hear him yelling at the slug to get out of his home. The slug refuses to leave and just stands there.
The home owner goes back into his bedroom to get his gun and comes back into the hall, where he continued to yell at the burglar to get out as he unlocked and loaded his gun, the man still refused to leave, and fearing that the man would get into the dark and become more dangerous, he fired one shot at the man. The bullet hit the scum and did damage to his spinal cord.
Within three days, this thug’s wife, Julie Prochaska (who is obviously a real winner herself), told police that the doctor had no right to shoot her husband, and they were going to sue the homeowner. Yesterday, they filed suit against Dr. Rainiero in Milwaukee, not in Rock County where this happened. He is obviously hoping that he can get a more sympathetic jury in Milwaukee (wonder why he didn’t use Dane County?).
Rock County District Attorney, David O’Leary refused to file charges “because the doctor had acted in self-defense.”
http://tinyurl.com/s5bmd
You are going to be arrested if you shoot somebody, even if the guy is toting a machine gun. No matter what you say, you will be arrested. So, you tell the police that you intend to cooperate but won't discuss what happened until you've spoken to your attorney. Your attorney helps you craft a statement which satisfies the police/DA's needs but which doesn't give the perp's attorney anything to use against you.
The proper couse of action in Wisconsin would have been to collect up his wife and children, beg the burgler not to hurt them, then immediately exit their home, go to a neighbor's home, and call the police.
Mark