Walter Wiemann

The family of a 73-year-old Vietnam veteran with Alzheimer’s disease settled the federal lawsuit they filed against state police troopers over his 2018 shooting death in the yard of his Forward Township home.

Troopers shot and killed Walter Wiemann on Sept. 18 after he emerged from his home carrying a hunting rifle, which was not loaded, according to the suit that was filed in September 2020.

“I’m glad the case is resolved,” said Tammi Kaufman, one of Wiemann’s daughters who filed suit along with her mother and Wiemann’s widow, Karen Wiemann.

Kaufman said she cannot discuss terms of the settlement due to a confidentiality agreement.

“We’re happy to be able to resolve the matter,” said the Wiemann’s attorney Max Petrunya. “It was a very difficult situation for the family and the police. We’re just glad we can put this matter behind us.”

The state Attorney General’s Office, which represented the police, and state police declined to comment on the settlement.

Capt. Steve Ignantz, Cpls. Timothy Morando, Greg Bogan and Brian King and Troopers Brian Lumsden and Brian Palko were last remaining defendants. Several other troopers had been removed as defendants during the course of the suit.

The suit was dismissed in September 2021 but reinstated in March 2022 after the second of two amended complaints were filed. A third amended complaint was filed in August 2022.

Kaufman called 911 on Sept. 18, 2018, two days after her father became upset and confused when he discovered the bee hives in his barn were empty. He forgot that he and other family members cleaned the hives and burned the remains during the summer due to a mite infestation. His mood fluctuated over the next two days, but he stayed awake until about 4 a.m. that day watching the hives from the deck of his house, according to the suit.

Kauffman was on the phone with her father’s doctor to arrange a prescription for medication to calm him when her mother called and said he was angry again and opened a locked gun cabinet and removed an unloaded hunting rifle. Kaufman told her mother to leave the home, and they met at Connoquenessing Park, where she called 911.

A trooper and a representative from the Center for Community Resources Crisis Center met Kaufman and her mother at the park, and the trooper told them police would treat the incident as a criminal matter due to possible threats to neighbors unless they signed the Section 302 mental health commitment form. Additional troopers arrived while Kaufman and her mother were talking to police. They eventually signed the commitment form, according to the suit.

In previous interviews with the Butler Eagle, Kaufman said she regrets signing the document.

Police launched what the complaint called a “full-scale military-style assault and siege” at the home on Nursery Road. It began around noon and ended when Wiemann was shot around 3:45 p.m. after he walked into the yard carrying the rifle. The complaint says no less than 17 troopers, a Bearcat armored vehicle and a helicopter responded to the Wiemann home.