DA: Deputies shot Elkhorn man in self-defense

The Walworth County District Attorney said officers who shot a man after a report of a home invasion did so in self-defense.

In a letter addressed to Sheriff David Graves dated Tuesday, Daniel Necci said the four officers who fired at 39-year-old Jeremy Krubert of Elkhorn on June 13 were justified.

After reviewing the statements of Walworth County deputies Todd Newuman, Jeffrey Shaw, Wayne Blancard and Garth Frami, as well as the house resident — and mother of the man killed — Kathleen Krubert, the district attorney wrote that the death did not merit an inquest.

“Deputy Neumann’s, Deputy Shaw’s, Deputy Frami’s and Deputy Blanchard’s actions were privileged as acts of defense of themselves or others,” Necci wrote.

The report said Krubert was shot by the officers after allegedly breaking into his mother’s home on Highway O in La Grange. The report stated that Krubert attacked his mother’s boyfriend with a metal pipe, and then stole a responding deputy’s squad car and crashed it in a field. The district attorney’s letter said after he crashed, Krubert was attempting to load a rifle from the squad car and ignored demands to drop the firearm. The officers fired their weapons, killing Krubert.

Necci said his conclusion was based on evidence from the Walworth County Sheriff’s Department and the state Department of Justice Division of Criminal Investigation, the Waukesha County Medical Examiner’s Office and the State Crime Lab.