Police: Suspect arrested in wounding of 2 Wisconsin officers

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DELAFIELD, Wis. (AP) — A man suspected of wounding two police officers in a shooting in Wisconsin on Friday and who is wanted in North Dakota for attempted murder has been arrested following a large-scale manhunt, police said.

Delafield Police Chief Erik Kehl said the man was arrested without resistance in a field not far from the Holiday Inn where the officers were shot in Waukesha County, about 27 miles (43 kilometers) west of Milwaukee.

Police earlier identified the man as 23-year-old Nathanael Benton, wanted in Fargo for a shooting.

“Yeah, I want this guy,” Kehl told reporters during an impromptu news conference in a nearby parking lot. “I want him in custody. I want him to face justice for what he’s done and then I can tell the community it’s safe.”

Aerial video of the arrest taken by WISN-TV shows the suspect walking across the field near a residential cul-de-sac with his hands up. Several tactical officers with guns trained on him began to close in.

The man drops to his knees, then lies flat on his stomach and puts his hands behind his back. Officers place him in handcuffs and remove his pants for a search.

Law enforcement officers had been looking for the suspect for about nine hours after he fled from the shooting about 1:40 a.m. outside the Holiday Inn, which is less than a mile from where he was arrested.

Kehl said that one of his officers and another from nearby Hartland confronted the man, suspected in a hit-and-run crash, outside the hotel at Interstate 94 and Highway 83.

Shots were exchanged and the two officers were hit, Kehl said. The officers’ wounds are not believed to be life-threatening, the chief said.

Fargo police, in a Facebook post, said they were notified Friday morning that the shooting in Delafield involved Benton, a man wanted in their city for attempted murder.

According to Fargo police, a man called police about 2:30 a.m. Sunday and said he thought he had been shot. He said he had taken a ride share to Moorhead, Minnesota, and then experienced head pain.

He returned to Fargo and called police. He was taken to the hospital, where medical personnel found bullet fragments in his head, police said.