The state Department of Justice Division of Criminal Investigation is investigating the shooting of a carjacking suspect by La Crosse police officers. Police shot and killed the man Sunday evening, after he stole a family’s SUV at gunpoint. A one year-old girl who was inside the vehicle was not injured.
According to police, an armed man approached the family at Houska Park, while their one year-old and three year-old daughters were napping in their Chevy Trailblazer. The girls mother, 23 year-old Kneshay Fair, was able to grab the older girl while her husband, who was fishing nearby, fought with the suspect.
The man sped off with the toddler still inside. Police say officers caught up with him a short time later, and that he drove the stolen vehicle through a construction site, went airborne, and slammed into a parked car.
When the man did not comply with orders from officers, two of them shot and killed him. The little girl inside was not injured.
It’s the La Crosse Police Department’s first officer-involved shooting where a suspect was killed since 1935. The two officers involved in the shooting are on paid administrative leave per department policy.