PIERRE, S.D. (AP) - A Whitewood police officer was justified in shooting a Rapid City man in the leg in April, the South Dakota attorney general announced on Monday.
Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg reported that 41-year-old Jaris Kroetch failed sobriety tests, resisted arrest and attempted to flee from an officer before he was shot at a gas station in Whitewood on April 10.
A police officer was called to the gas station after a clerk reported Kroetch was murmuring to himself and acting paranoid, according to a summary of the report. The officer said Kroetch failed a sobriety test, but as the officer tried to handcuff Kroetch, he fled. The officer fired a Taser at Kroetch, bringing him to the ground. But as the officer got on top of Kroetch, he pulled the Taser prongs from his back and flipped the officer onto the ground.
Kroetch then fled to his car and brandished a knife, the attorney general reported. Audio from the officer’s body camera recorded the officer telling Kroetch that if he put his keys in the ignition, he would be shot. As the car started, the officer shot Kroetch in the left leg.
Kroetch survived and was found to have methamphetamine and marijuana in his system.
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