Wednesday, September 18, 2024
By Robert Cloud
Two shooting incidents within five days occurred in the city of Waupaca.
In the first incident, a woman was injured while trying to stop her partner from shooting himself shortly before 8 a.m. Monday, June 17.
In the second incident, around 8:40 p.m. Saturday, June 22, Waupaca police responded to a domestic complaint on North State Street.
When officers arrived at State Street, they heard a gunshot. A short time later, they heard a second gunshot.
They learned that a man was inside the residence with firearms and had threatened “suicide by cop,” according to a press release.
Officers established phone contact with the man and persuaded him to exit the home without further incident. He was taken into custody.
Police said they will release his name and further information after charges are filed.
Nathaniel T. Everts, 37, Waupaca, is charged with three counts of reckless endangerment, three counts of reckless use of a firearm, causing injury by negligent use of a firearm, felony strangulation, two counts of misdemeanor child neglect, and disorderly conduct as an act of domestic abuse.
Waupaca police were dispatched to the High Street apartment complex in response to a man reportedly trying to kill himself.
According to the criminal complaint, Officers Cameron Durrant and Paul Jensen went to the building’s south entrance, while Detective Sgt. Bret Rodenz and Officer Matthew Batte went to the north side.
Rodenz and Batte encountered a woman who was leaving the building with a 3-year-old child in her arms. She was yelling that Everts was still in the building with her baby.
Durrant and Jensen were already in the couple’s apartment. Everts had locked himself in the bathroom while the officers removed the baby from the apartment.
After nearly 90 minutes, Everts exited the apartment with his hands up and no weapons. He was arrested without further incident.
Police reported finding a bullet hole in the hallway ceiling outside the apartment, a spent 22-caliber casing on the hallway floor, a 22-caliber rifle by the bathroom and a magazine that was on the floor next to the rifle but not inserted into it.
Other loaded rifle clips were located in the apartment.
“There was a wooden box that was located along the north wall of the bedroom that was filled with 59 knives, 4 hatchets, a pair of brass knuckles and a throwing star. There was a plastic tub filled with multiple knives and swords and other miscellaneous weapons,” the complaint says.
Officers also found the broken pieces of a gun case on top of and beside the bed.
The woman had tried to take the gun from Everts before he removed it from the case.
He allegedly held her in a headlock during the struggle.
The woman left the apartment and went into the hallway where “she started screaming for help. No one came to help her,” the complaint says.
She told police that Everts followed her into the hallway, placed the rifle’s butt on the floor and aimed the barrel at his head, with his finger on the trigger.
The woman tried to take the gun away and the rifle fired.
She told police that a bullet grazed her neck, which she did not realize until Everts noticed the blood. He placed a baby rag on her neck. He went back inside the apartment and she called 911.
She said Everts had been abusive in the past and she was fearful for her safety, according to the complaint.
Everts is currently in custody on a $50,000 cash bond.
