UPDATE: SWAT incident ends in tragedy

Man dies of self-inflicted injuries following  standoff

By Ed Nadolski

Editor in Chief

A 53-year-old Kansasville man is dead from what authorities describe as self-inflicted injuries following a March 15 domestic incident that evolved into a full-blown standoff and had SWAT team members descending on a Town of Burlington neighborhood.

Daniel Baumeister was declared dead Friday evening at Aurora Memorial Hospital of Burlington, more than a day after the incident. The cause of death was asphyxiation due to hanging, according to Racine County Medical Examiner Thomas Terry. He said Baumeister’s family could gain a small measure of comfort in the fact they were able to donate some of his organs.

Racine County Sheriff Christopher Schmaling called the incident “disheartening for the community” and the families involved.

Although investigators found no guns or other weapons at the scene that would have indicated Baumeister intended to harm others, Lt. Steve Sikora said authorities originally feared that could be the case.

The resulting response – with an armored vehicle and heavily armed Racine County SWAT team members in full tactical gear surrounding the cluster of condominiums near Arbor Lane just off McHenry Street – put the neighborhood on edge for several hours Thursday afternoon.

“He wasn’t coming out of the house and nobody really knew what he had (in terms of weapons),” Sikora said.

SWAT team members ended the mystery about 5:15 p.m. when they entered the home in the 7400 block of Woodland Circle, nearly an hour after first firing “flash-bang” devices and chemical agents into the home in an attempt to flush Baumeister out, according to Schmaling.

He was unresponsive when found by officers on the lower level of the home, Schmaling said, and was immediately transported to the hospital by the Burlington Rescue Squad. He was initially listed in critical condition late Thursday.

Sikora said the incident began as a domestic dispute between Baumeister and a woman – the owner of the home – who was in the process of breaking off a relationship with him.

According to sheriff’s officials and other sources:

Deputies were sent to the home about 12:30 p.m. Thursday after dispatchers received a 911 call from a friend of the woman, who said she feared for the woman’s safety.

The friend told authorities she was talking with the woman by phone when she heard a scream and the line went dead. Repeated attempts to call back went unanswered.

The sheriff’s department had taken a complaint from the woman earlier that morning regarding vandalism to her car, which she suspected had been caused by her boyfriend.

When deputies arrived, the woman answered the door looking as if she had been in an altercation and was escorted to a safe place by the deputies. There she told them her boyfriend was in the home and had scuffled with her, but later allowed her to answer the door. She also said he had made statements about harming himself and she wasn’t certain whether or not he had any weapons.

The woman was treated by rescue personnel at the scene for what officials described as “very minor” injuries.

Authorities were able to establish phone contact with Baumeister and attempted to persuade him to come out of the house. After about an hour, Baumeister, who again made statements about harming himself, hung up on them and attempts to call back were unanswered.

Meanwhile, members of the county’s SWAT team were summoned to the scene.

Once students at nearby Winkler Elementary School were dismissed for the day, the SWAT team moved in shortly after 3:30 p.m. and attempted to continue communicating with the man via loudspeaker.

Officials repeatedly asked Baumeister to come out of the front door of the residence with his hands up. They told him “he would not be harmed.”

They received no response.

Staff member Jennifer Eisenbart contributed to this story.