If his colleague hadn’t barked at him to get down, a Rock Springs Police Department officer would have been shot by a 9 mm bullet Monday evening, court documents say.
Rock Springs police officers Michelle Garrettson and Jerry Mignerey responded to 122 L St. at about 8:21 p.m. Monday for a reported disturbance, says an evidentiary affidavit filed in court the next day.
Officers already had responded to the same neighborhood Sunday, and earlier Monday for similar calls involving Kevin William Lorentzen, 40, says the case evidentiary affidavit.
Mignerey arrived on scene and met with Garrettson, who was already speaking with a neighbor. The neighbor said a man matching Lorentzen’s description was walking around outside, shirtless and holding something in his hand, says the affidavit.
The officers approached the side door to Lorentzen’s home, found it shut but the main door was open. They looked into the house but could only see darkness inside, the document relates, so they used their flashlights.
Both officers prepared to walk back to their patrol vehicles, says the affidavit.
Garrettson flashed her light back into the home one more time. As Mignerey watched her, Garrettson drew her weapon, ducked to take cover, retreated into the street and called to Mignerey to get down, the document says.
Garrettson told Mignerey that when she had looked back in, she saw Lorentzen standing with a gun raised, pointed directly at her.
“Officer Garrettson stated that she was looking down the barrel of the gun,” the affidavit adds.
Mignerey knelt to take cover. A single gunshot sounded from within the home, says the document. He then heard the door open. He called out that they were police, and officers told Lorentzen to put the gun on a nearby trash can.
Lorentzen did so and put his hands in the air, says the affidavit.
The document says officers handcuffed him and read him his Miranda rights. On the trash can, the affidavit says, they found a pink 9mm pistol loaded with a live round.
Trying To Kill Me
Lorentzen told a detective that he’d been drinking vodka since noon. He had problems with his neighbor, and when he saw two flashlights probe his house, he thought it was his neighbor, the affidavit says. Lorentzen continued, saying he got his gun and aimed it at the flashlight, then shot – and assumed the bullet hit the grill.
He never heard threats, Lorentzen told the detective, according to the affidavit.
A statement Tuesday from the Rock Springs Police Department elaborates, saying that Lorentzen had been reporting an “ongoing complaint over the last 48 hours,” claiming that his neighbors had been planning to kill him, the statement says.
The statement added, “During these (prior) encounters, no laws had been broken.”
When the officers first arrived Monday evening, the neighbors told them Lorentzen had told them to go inside because someone was going to get shot, the statement says.
Half-Bucket Of Bullets
The affidavit says officers found a 9mm bullet outside the door next to the grill and found a spent 9mm casing inside the first door in the mud room area.
In the dining room, officers found a bucket half-full of 9 mm ammunition, the document says, plus a magazine loaded with 10 bullets and a holster.
The trajectory rod’s measurement indicated that the shot fired was aimed right about where Mignerey was standing just outside the home, police said.
“Had he not moved when Officer Garrettson told him to get down, the path of the bullet likely would have struck Officer Mignerey,” says the affidavit.
Sweetwater County Deputy Attorney TahNee Alton charged this case in circuit court Tuesday.
If Lorentzen is convicted, he could face up to 10 years in prison on an aggravated assault charge and up to one year in jail on a reckless endangering charge, plus fines.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
