An initial appearance was adjourned until Aug. 13 for a Whitewater man who was shot by police after breaking into his ex-wife’s home with a gun after threatening to kill her.
Christopher P. Czerpak, 33, was charged July 23 in Walworth County Circuit Court with armed burglary, possession of a firearm by a felon and criminal damage to property.
According to the criminal complaint, Czerpak kicked in the door of his ex-wife’s apartment on Fraternity Lane in Whitewater on July 20 after telling the woman the previous day that he was going to get a gun from his brother so that he could kill her and then himself. The woman said when she heard Czerpak enter the apartment, she called police and then hid in a room under laundry and could hear Czerpak walking around the apartment and saying, “Where are you, b—-?” according to the complaint.
The woman said she looked out the window and saw Czerpak running out of the apartment building when police arrived, according to the complaint. An officer found a 9-mm round on the living room floor of the apartment and another 9-mm round under a bed in one of the bedrooms, the complaint states. Officers went to Czerpak’s home where his brother also lives and learned the brother’s Sig Sauer pistol was missing from the residence, according to the complaint.
Police looked for Czerpak in the area of his ex-wife’s apartment, and officers shot Czerpak, who had the gun in his hand, in the area of Carriage Drive at about 5:30 a.m., according to the complaint.
