Samara Lime Derby | Wisconsin State Journal
A gunman who stumbled upon a Kwik Trip on the North Side late Friday afternoon is dead after he and police exchanged gunfire, Madison Deputy Police Chief Matt Tye said Friday night.
Police searched the area for a murder suspect, but were unable to confirm the dead man was that suspect until identified by the Dane County Coroner.
An unidentified number of shots were fired by both the Madison police officer involved and the suspect. Another Madison police officer attempted to use a taser, Tye said.
“The suspect was later found in the bathroom of this deceased Kwik Trip,” he said.
The incident began late Friday afternoon when police were looking for a suspect in the death of a woman whose body they discovered on Wednesday.
An ambulance is at the scene at 3528 E. Washington Ave. arrived in Madison, where police say they have been pursuing a suspect in an unknown crime.
A Dane County 911 dispatcher said at 4:45 p.m. Friday that Madison police were “working on an incident and located a suspect” who entered the store at 3528 E. Washington Ave.
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Tye said police initially confronted the suspect outside Kwik Trip’s bathroom and “the whole incident lasted only a few minutes”.
Officers were in the area looking for Justin D. Kopmeyer, whom police had identified as a suspect in the East Side murder. An arrest warrant had been issued for Kopmeyer because of the woman’s death on Wednesday in the 3400 block of Richard Street. The woman has not been identified.
A gunman ran into Kwik Trip and a confrontation with police ensued inside the store.
Shots were fired by the man and a Madison police officer. Another officer attempted to use less than lethal force, police said. The man was found dead in the bathroom minutes later.
Customers were inside the store, police said, but it was unclear if they had all fled at the time of the shooting. No one else was injured in the shooting.
The officers involved in the shooting are on furlough pending an investigation, which is standard procedure.
Jesus Nolasco said he was on the Kwik Trip with his family buying food when a man chased by police ran in.
Police are working at the Kwik Trip scene on East Washington Avenue late Friday afternoon.
AMBER ARNOLD, STATE JOURNAL
“Suddenly a (man) came in and at that moment all you could hear was screams coming from the refrigerators in the background,” Nolasco said in an interview while waiting at the nearby La Taguara restaurant. “A gun went off.”
Then Nolasco grabbed his wife and daughter and ducked behind the shelves.
Nolasco said he heard what sounded like a taser and that the man then ran into the store kitchen, where Nolasco believes there was an employee there. At this point, Nolasco’s family and everyone else in the store were evacuated.
Police are investigating late Friday after a suspect stumbled upon a Kwik Trip and gunfire was recovered on Madison’s North Side.
SAMANTHA MADAR, STATE JOURNAL
On Friday afternoon, when announcing that a warrant had been issued for Kopmeyer’s arrest, authorities said he had ties to the north and east sides of Madison, as well as the Lodi, Baraboo, Beaver Dam and Belleville areas.
The Madison Police Department is responding to an incident at the Kwik Trip along the 3500 block of E. Washington Ave.
Please use alternate routes if you must navigate this portion of E. Washington Ave.
More information will be released later in the evening.
— Madison Police (@madisonpolice) February 24, 2023
Authorities closed East Washington Avenue in both directions between Wright Street and Highway 51 at 4:50 p.m. Friday. According to the State Department of Transportation, the lane was reopened at 6:14 a.m.
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