Brian Flatoff
Prosecutors are charging the suspect in last Saturday’s shooting and standoff in downtown Neenah for what happened before he went to Eagle Nation Cycles.
Court records say 46-year-old Brian Flatoff was staying at a friend’s house last Friday night. Flatoff reportedly went to the woman’s house, and became very drunk, before he eventually fell asleep in the living room at around 7:00 Saturday morning.
Records say, when the woman woke up a bit later, she heard Flatoff stumbling in the living room. She told him that he had to go to the hospital for a possible concussion, because he had fallen and struck his head the night before. That’s when Flatoff allegedly grabbed the woman’s .45-caliber handgun, pinned her on her bed, and fired a shot into the wall above her.
Records say the woman told investigators that Flatoff then told her that he was going to Eagle Nation Cycles to talk about the motorcycle that he believed was stolen from him. The woman said she wasn’t concerned at that time because he seemed rational, and said he was just going to talk. A short time later, the woman’s husband called to tell her about the hostage situation.
Flatoff faces charges of second-degree reckless endangerment, being a felon with a gun, and bail jumping. None of those charges are from the standoff.
Members of the Eagle Nation bike club returned to their building on Wednesday, in the wake of last Saturday’s shooting and standoff. Sixty-year-old Michael Funk of Neenah, known as ML, was shot by Neenah police officers. The standoff suspect, Flatoff, eventually surrendered.
Eagle Nation Cycles owner Steven Erato accused police of causing damage throughout the building, while they were investigating. Erato also questioned why SWAT officers would have left the building, and abandoned the hostages, after one of their officers was hit in his ballistic helmet by a bullet.
WHBY