Man Accused of Attacking Cop, Menards Worker Over Mask Policy is Charged

(KNSI) – A man accused of attacking a police officer with a hammer while dragging him from his vehicle has been charged.

Luke Alvin Oeltjenbruns is charged with one count of first-degree assault, two counts of second-degree assault, and one count fleeing a peace officer in a motor vehicle-bodily injury, all felonies.

The 61-year-old Hutchinson man is accused of injuring a police officer and assaulting a Menards employee over a face mask policy.

According to the criminal complaint filed Friday, Hutchinson Police responded to Menards at 1525 Montreal St. SE at 1:50 p.m. Wednesday on a report of an assault.

Menards employees described the suspect, with police determining the suspect was Oeltjenbruns.

A video showed a Menards employee stopped near the side of Oeltenbruns’ cart, and Oeltjenbruns began to “jab” the employee with one of the pieces of wood.

The employee told police he saw Oeltjenbruns approach the checkout not wearing a mask, and he told him he had to put a mask on.

Oeltjenbruns tried to push his cart past the worker, but the worker grabbed the cart.

That’s when Oeltjenbruns hit the worker with the lumber and tried to leave again, only to have the worker grab the cart again.

Then Oeltjenbruns struck the worker “five or six times” in the head with his hand.

The worker had a headache and had a raised red mark on his forehead.

Police found Oeltjenbrun’s vehicle in the Walmart parking lot.

The vehicle started to pull away, and police initiated a traffic stop.

The vehicle eventually stopped at a red light when an officer got out of their squad car with a weapon drawn.

Oeltjenbruns rolled down his window a “couple of inches” and told police to shoot him.

Oeltjenbruns ignored commands to get out of the vehicle and drove away.

Officers surrounded Oeltjenbruns’ vehicle with squad cars and again told him to open the window and get out of the vehicle.

An officer explained to Oeltjenbruns that he matched the description of a man who assaulted an employee at Menards. Oeltjenbruns refused to comply and was told that officers would break his window to get him out of the truck if he didn’t comply.

The Officer got onto the truck’s running board and reached through the window. Oeltjenbruns’ grabbed the Officer’s right arm and closed the window on it, trapping the Officer.

The defendant then drove the truck forward into a squad car.

Oeltjenbruns then backed into another squad car and continued “bashing his vehicle against the squad cars with the Officer hanging out the window.

Oeltjenbruns stopped near Highway 15 and South Grade Road, which had been blocked by squad cars.

When the officer tried to use a safety hammer to break the window, Oeltjenbruns allegedly grabbed the hammer and hit the cop in the head.

Officers eventually arrested Oeltjenbruns.

The Officer was taken to the hospital, where he received eight metal staples for the wound on his head, and he had an abrasion on his arm.

He has been released from the hospital and is at home recovering.

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