Inset: Zachary Fink (Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office). Background: A residential intersection in Whitefish Bay, Wis. (Google Maps).
A Wisconsin man has been jailed after authorities say he threatened to blow up his own home and hurled multiple household objects at responding officers.
Zachary Fink, 32, is facing charges that include failure to comply with an officer’s attempt to take a person into custody, obstructing an officer, disorderly conduct, use of a dangerous weapon, and bail jumping, according to the Whitefish Bay Police Department.
The incident unfolded on June 22 near East Hampton Road and North Berkeley Boulevard, a residential intersection in Whitefish Bay, a small Milwaukee suburb.
Police were dispatched after receiving a report of a man allegedly making gun-like gestures with his hands and threatening to shoot people, according to a criminal complaint obtained by Milwaukee Fox affiliate WITI.
Officers arrived at about 5 p.m., and Fink allegedly retreated into his home and barricaded himself inside, police said.
Authorities established a perimeter around the residence while crisis negotiators attempted to communicate with him, according to law enforcement officials.
Fink and sheriff’s deputies later communicated by text message as the situation continued.
The defendant allegedly wrote a series of threatening messages including: “I’ll blow up the house rn give me the cigs as I asked” and “I’ll stab y’all don’t play games. I’m sick of getting picked on.”
Around 9:45 p.m., the defendant walked out the front door with a knife in his hand, prosecutors allege. In response, an officer fired a 40mm less-lethal foam round at Fink, but the projectile missed.
After that, the defendant allegedly began throwing objects at police — including two knives at squad cars parked some 20 to 30 feet away. The knives, however, landed on the ground some 10 feet from where police were positioned behind the cars, according to the complaint.
Fink next punched a mirror and threw the shards of shattered glass out the front door before retreating back inside, police said.
For the next 15 minutes or so, officers heard what sounded like the defendant destroying objects inside the residence, noting loud crashes and more shattering glass, the charging document says.
Finally, around 10 p.m., Fink again left the house and carried on in what police termed an “aggressive manner” before he was arrested.
Inside and out, officers noted a large amount of damage while clearing the residence, according to the complaint. Several pieces of the broken mirror were still on the porch; plates and other dishes were also broken and thrown across the interior of the residence — along with a shattered glass table and cabinet, law enforcement said.
On June 28, a judge found the defendant is not competent to proceed. Fink is next slated to appear in court on Aug. 5 in order for the judge to consider the results of a mental health evaluation.
