[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 51 (Tuesday, May 3, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: May 3, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                       OUTGUNNED BY THE BAD GUYS

  (Mr. KLECZKA asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks and include extraneous 
matter.)
  Mr. KLECZKA. Madam Speaker, I am holding in my hand a copy of a story 
from the Milwaukee Journal, which describes in vivid detail the death 
and destructiveness of military-style assault weapons.
  The headline reads, ``Outgunned by the Bad Guys,'' and is a quote 
from Pewaukee Police Chief Ed Baumann. He was describing last 
Thursday's violent and tragic death of Captain James Lutz, of the 
Waukesha police department. Captain Lutz, a 29-year decorated veteran 
of the police force, was in pursuit of two bank robbers who turned 
their M1-A assault weapons on him, killing him instantly in a hail of 
20 rounds. ``It was not even close,'' says chief Baumann, ``He didn't 
have a chance.''
  This week, the House will have the opportunity to ban the deadly 
weapons like the ones that cut down Captain Lutz and countless other 
Americans each year. This is not some knee-jerk reaction to a tragedy, 
this is an opportunity to take a stand on the safety of the men, women, 
and children of America.
  This bill does not ban legitimate hunting and sporting weapons. 
Instead, it halts the manufacture, transfer and sale of the most 
deadly, the most indiscriminate, the most violent types of weapons 
available on the market today.
  Over 670 hunting and sporting rifles are specifically exempted by 
this legislation, and weapons currently owned are protected by a 
grandfather clause. This bill does away with the most deadly 
instruments of terror, the weapons designed for no other purpose than 
to kill people quickly. How can anyone oppose that?
  I urge my colleagues to think about the fear in the hearts of their 
constituents who see that even the police cannot defend themselves from 
these weapons.
  I encourage my colleagues to vote for the assault weapons ban.
  Madam Speaker, I include for the Record the article to which I 
referred.

                       Outgunned by the Bad Guys

       The chaos began with a popping sound amid the security of a 
     quiet rural bank.
       The clock on the wall of the Bank One branch office at 
     state Highways 18 and 83 in Wales showed about 9:30 a.m. A 
     customer, her child and five bank employees were there when 
     the gunman walked inside.
       Inside the bank, the gunman shouted. Then he fired a shot 
     into the wall that knocked down the clock and set into motion 
     a series of violent events that resulted in the death of 
     Waukesha Police Capt. James A. Lutz, 57; injuries to three 
     other officers; a terrified and wounded hostage; and two men, 
     believed to be 18 and 50 years of age and possibly 
     responsible for a string of robberies in the area, in 
     custody.
       ``It [the shot] sounded like a toy cap gun,'' One of the 
     tellers told investigators. ``Everything happened so fast.''
       The young gunman ordered the tellers to lie down on the 
     floor. He waved a handgun and put on a mask. According to 
     reports, he shouted. ``Get down or I'll shoot.''
       ``When he told us to get down we got down and didn't look 
     up again.'' A teller told authorities.
       The gunman and his partner, who was in a getaway car, were 
     on a mission: Both wore body armor, and they carried a 9mm 
     handgun and two M-14 semiautomatic assault rifles.
       As the employees lowered their heads, the gunman rifled 
     through cash boxes in the bank. He fled with an undetermined 
     amount of cash.
       Outside, the husband of the bank customer saw what was 
     happening through the front door windows. As he left the bank 
     parking lot to call police, he spotted another man, in what 
     appeared to be the getaway car.
       The gunmen, driving a silver Ford Taurus with no license 
     plates, drove east on Highway 18, north on County Highway G 
     and east on Silvernail Road toward Waukesha. Officers were 
     already responding, thanks to a silent alarm at the bank, but 
     they were aided by the man's description of the car.


                            the first chase

       Officers in two Waukesha squad cars were the first to spot 
     the robbers. Lutz, a nearly 30-year veteran of the force, was 
     driving an unmarked squad car. He was tailed by Officer 
     Thomas Fletcher. They followed the gunmen into the Rolling 
     Ridge subdivision on the far northwest side of Waukesha.
       One block into the subdivision, at Rolling Ridge Drive and 
     Meadowbrook Road, one of the men exited the car and sprayed 
     Lutz's vehicle with gunfire from an assault rifle. At 9:53 
     a.m., Lutz, who never made it out of his car, was struck 
     several times, perhaps by as many as 20 rounds, witnesses 
     said. He died instantly.
       The shooting happened across the street from Meadowbrook 
     Elementary School, where students were inside. The school 
     doors were locked after the shots were fired.
       Fletcher crouched behind the open door of his squad car and 
     returned fire at the fleeing suspects. Bullets broke the 
     windshield of Fletcher's squad car, but many of them 
     ricocheted off his dashboard. Fletcher suffered a scrape and 
     bruise under his right arm, which could have been caused by a 
     bullet or flying debris.


                             car abandoned

       After the shootout, the two gunmen abandoned their car. 
     They ran for a half-mile through an open field and down a 
     wooded embankment to a frontage road along Interstate 94.
       One of the gunmen ran into the Interstate Printing plant, 
     N14-W27545 Silvernail Road, in the Town of Pewaukee, and 
     threatened two customers and an employee. Niki Herber, a 
     graphic designer at Interstate Printing, was working in a 
     back room when the gunman burst into the business.
       ``I heard him shout, `Get on the floor or I'll kill you. 
     Give me your car keys,''' Herber said.
       The customers and the print shop employee quickly complied. 
     The gunman snatched a set of keys to a 1990 Mitsubishi 
     Montero parked out front and owned by Stella Knill, an 
     advertising representative for Journal/Sentinel Inc.
       ``I was opening the door to leave,'' Knill said Friday. 
     ``Somebody grabbed me by the arm, spun me around and told me 
     to get back inside. I thought he was joking.
       ``He showed me a gun and I said, `OK.'''
       Knill said the gunman told all three in the shop to get on 
     the floor.
       ``He started screaming, `Who has cars here?' and `who has 
     keys?'
       ``Then he decided he wanted my Montero. He asked, `Who's 
     got the Montero? Who's got the Mitsubishi?'''
       When Knill turned over the keys the gunman made his final 
     threat.
       ``He said. `Don't get up! Don't move! I can see you through 
     the windows. I'll kill you all!'''
       The pair headed north on County Highway G and onto a dead-
     end road, Fieldhack Drive, where police thought they had them 
     cornered. But the men abandoned the stolen Mitsubishi and 
     fled north on foot through a wooded area.


                          woman taken hostage

       There were reports that gunmen first ran to a house where 
     no one was home. They ended up at a ranch home occupied by 
     Judy Opat, on Oak St. near West Park.
       At the time, about 10:30 a.m., Opat was just one of many 
     residents who came to their doors to see why the area was 
     swarming with police.
       At first she thought the two men at her door were officers. 
     But when they pulled out military-style rifles, she locked 
     her door. It wasn't good enough. They shot out the door in an 
     explosion of glass.
       The men entered her home, took her hostage and ordered her 
     to get behind the wheel of her full-size conversion van. 
     Their intention was clear; to get Opat to run the police 
     barricade out front. To make the message clear, they 
     threatened to kill her.
       One of the gunmen rode beside her and the other sat behind 
     her as they approached the barricade of squad cars. Witnesses 
     said there was an exchange of gunfire as the shiny, gray van 
     got closer to the police.
       ``As they came out of the driveway, they started firing at 
     us,'' Sheriff's Inspector Gary Palusczyk said.
       Bullets or shrapnel struck Sheriff's Capt. Thomas Lentz, 
     43, and Hartland's acting police chief, Thomas Duemling, 58. 
     Lentz was struck in the knee, Duemling in the upper thigh.
       Duemling was in good condition Friday at Waukesha Memorial 
     Hospital; Lentz was treated and released.
       Once the van approached the police roadblock, Opat decided 
     to jump out. She landed on the pavement.
       At some point, Opat was shot in the left shoulder. Her 
     husband, Dale, said she told him that she was shot before she 
     jumped, but it was unclear who shot her. She was in good 
     condition Friday at Waukesha Memorial.
       Opat scrambled for her life, ducking behind cars in the 
     roadblock. After she tumbled from the vehicle, an intense 
     gunbattle ensured.
       ``I bet there were 100 gunshots over 30 and 40 seconds,'' 
     witness Duane Wasley said. At one home, residents counted 
     more than a dozen bullet holes in the side of the house.
       ``At first it sounded like a row of firecrackers going 
     off,'' said Sylvia Gilmore, the owner of a nearby beauty 
     salon, Classic Styles.


                            end of the road

       The van hit an unmarked squad car, then sped off again for 
     several hundred feet. With one of the gunmen pointing his 
     weapon out the window, the van swerved to avoid another squad 
     car, then plowed into a stand of trees near Highway SS and 
     Oak St.
       The gunmen, injured in the crash, were surrounded by 
     police, who settled in for a long standoff.
       ``There were cops swarming all over the place,'' said Kim 
     Paulons, who was just entering a nearby beauty salon to get 
     her hair cut.
       Authorities prepared to assault the van by hiding behind a 
     snowplow owned by the Waukesha County Department of 
     Transportation. A Sheriff's Department detective driving the 
     plow used the huge blades to provide protection for the 
     officers, dressed all in black.
       Scores of neighbors watched the tense standoff for almost 
     two hours. Negotiators for the county's tactical unit 
     attempted to coax the gunmen into exiting the vehicle. The 
     gunmen were injured and said they were unable to drop their 
     weapons as commanded.
       About 12:30 p.m., officers approached the men only after 
     determining they would not be fired upon. Officers pointed 
     handguns and rifles through the windows of the van. One of 
     the suspects was pinned in the van and had to be extricated.
       On Friday, the two remained in Waukesha Memorial Hospital 
     in fair condition.
       ``I'll never forget it,'' said Donna Davis, who was sitting 
     in the beauty parlor watching the events unfold. ``I have 
     lived here all of my life and don't lock my doors, I'll lock 
     them now.''
       ``We ended up being out-gunned by the bad guys,'' Pewaukee 
     Police Chief Ed Baumann said at the end of the day's events. 
     ``It was not even close. [Lutz] did not have a chance.''

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