A Milwaukee man accompanying a friend who was attempting to buy a gun he found on an online gun site is accused of shooting another man before the transaction occurred. And it all happened in front of a police station.
Randall Drescher, 65, is charged with first degree reckless homicide. He's accused of shooting Reed Emil Carlsen on Thursday evening.
According to a criminal complaint, Drescher accompanied a friend to buy the gun to make sure he didn't get ripped off.
The two men went to the the District 6 police station at 3006 South 27th St. to complete the transaction.
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While they were waiting in a van, the two men observed Carlsen nearby. Drescher told police Carlsen was "acting hyper and appeared to be on drugs," and walked toward their vehicle and instigated a verbal altercation that resulted in him throwing an orange traffic cone inside the van.
Drescher says as he was putting the cone back, Carlsen began to walk quickly walk or run toward him, so he pulled out a gun and eventually fired when Carlsen entered his "danger zone."
Police say Drescher put the gun back in the van and walked into the station and stated, “Get an ambulance, someone is shot outside.”
Carlsen suffered a fatal shot to his chest, and a graze wound to his inner thigh.
If convicted, Drescher could face up to 60 years in prison.
Correction: An earlier version of this story stated that the gun transaction was for a listing on Craigslist. The gun was actually for sale on Arms List.
