Dodge County panel clears deputy in shooting

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By The Associated Press

FREMONT — An internal review board has cleared a Dodge County sheriff’s deputy who shot a Fremont man accused of attacking officers with a hammer.

Deputy Craig Harbaugh, 36, returned to duty Wednesday. He had been on paid administrative leave pending a review of the July 10 shooting.

Stuart R. Sack, 54, was shot in the wrist and leg and treated at an Omaha hospital.

The department’s Deadly Force Review Board reviewed the shooting investigation, Dodge County Sheriff Steve Hespen said.

“The preliminary report is that Deputy Harbaugh’s discharge of his firearm was within department policy,” Hespen said, because a deputy can use deadly force to protect himself or others “from what he reasonably believes to be an immediate threat of death or bodily harm.”

Officers were called to a Fremont home about 8:40 p.m. on July 10 about a possible burglary. Sack’s mother told police he had broken out her windows. She said Sack was at his home and likely was suicidal.

The sheriff said that when officers got to Sack’s home he was wielding a hammer and refused orders to put it down.

Sack struck a Fremont police officer, who was later treated at a hospital.

Hespen said Sack was shot with a Taser that did not work, and then Harbaugh fired his service pistol at Sack. The bullet went through Sack’s right wrist and hit his right hip.

Sack continued to come at officers until a second Taser shot subdued him.

No charges have been filed yet against Sack.