HUTCHINSON, Minn. — A Hutchinson man pleaded guilty to two counts of assault after an incident back in April that began with the man assaulting an employee at a home improvement story, and ended with an officer being dragged by a vehicle at a high rate of speed.
According to court records, Luke Oeltjenbruns, 61, pleaded guilty to first- and second-degree assault on Wednesday. He is scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 24.
The criminal complaint filed against Oeltjenbruns details a series of events on April 14 just before 2 p.m., when two Hutchinson police officers were dispatched to the local Menards on reports that an employee had been assaulted.
The officers reviewed security footage and saw the suspect, described as an older white male with a grey beard, jabbing the employee with a piece of wood. Employees gave the officers a description of the suspect's pickup and a license plate number, and the vehicle was soon located in the parking lot of a nearby Walmart. According to the complaint, a Hutchinson police officer turned on the lights and squawked the siren on her clearly marked squad car and attempted to pull over the driver, later identified as Oeltjenbruns, but he drove away slowly.
When Oeltjenbruns finally stopped for a red light, the officer got out of her vehicle and approached with her gun drawn. Two other officers soon joined her. They demanded he roll down his window and officers say Oeltjenbruns complied, but only dropped the window a few inches. The suspect was told he was at gunpoint and he allegedly replied that he didn't care, telling officers to shoot him, the criminal complaint said.
After driving away when the light was green, responding officers used their squads to surround Oeltjenbruns' truck, and ordered him out. Officers say he refused, and veteran officer Steve Sickmann approached the pickup to de-escalate the situation. When he attempted to reach inside the vehicle Oeltjenbruns reportedly rolled up his window, trapping the officers arm.
Video shot by a witness shows the suspect ramming Hutchinson squad cars, and then driving off at a high rate of speed with Officer Sickmann hanging from the truck. At one point, the complaint says the officer pulled a rescue hammer to break the truck window, but he says Oeltjenbruns wrestled it away from him and struck him on the head, causing significant injury.
Police were eventually able to stop the truck and Oeltjenbruns was taken into custody. Officer Sickmann was taken to the hospital where it took eight staples to close the wound on his head. He was also treated for a serious abrasion to his arm.
Investigators interviewed the Menards employee, who informed them he told Oeltjenbruns he wouldn't check him out unless he put on a mask. The defendant refused, allegedly attacking the employee with a piece of wood and then punching him in the head "five or six times."
