GRAND CHUTE (NBC 26) — The Fond du Lac County Sheriff's Office is praising one of its deputies for actions he took during the fatal shooting at Fox River Mall.
The accused shooter in the case, Dezman Ellis, is facing charges for the Jan. 31 fatal shooting. He is accused of shooting and killing Jovanni Frausto inside the mall during an argument. One other person was injured.
The Sheriff's Office said Blaine Evans, an off-duty Fond du Lac County sheriff’s deputy, sprang into action when he learned of the shooting. Evans was shopping at Scheels All Sports with family when they saw people running and learned of a shooting at the mall food court. The Sheriff said all customers were escorted to a secure room to remain safe.
It was at this point the Sheriff said Evans separated from his family, identified himself as an off-duty deputy to a store manager, and was escorted to the video surveillance room to look at camera feeds to try and locate the shooter. A shooting victim was identified while reviewing video, and the Sheriff said the manager of the store let Evans out to respond to the victim, who was laying on the outdoor sidewalk near the Scheels main entrance.
The victim had been shot in the hip, and Evans used a sterile feminine pad from a passerby to apply pressure to the gunshot wound and stop the bleeding, the Sheriff's statement said.
While treating the victim, the Sheriff said Evans spotting someone roughly matching the description of the suspected shooter walking toward them with his hands in his pockets.
"After repeated commands to take his hands out of his pockets, but refusing to do so, deputy Evans was forced to stop treating the injured victim and transition to a protective mode, drawing his concealed firearm and identifying himself as law enforcement," the Sheriff statement said. "Thankfully, the man finally began to comply with orders to remove his hands from his pockets, and it was later determined he was not the shooting suspect, but rather an acquaintance of the victim laying on the ground."
During his treatment of the victim, the Sheriff said Deputy Evans was able to learn more information about the shooting. He then relayed what he knew to on-duty officers arriving to the scene. The Sheriff said Evans also stayed with the victim and rode along with him in the ambulance until they were out of the danger zone. The Sheriff said an on-duty officer eventually replaced Evans in the ambulance, information was exchanged, and he was able to rejoin his family later that evening.
In a news release, the Sheriff called Evans' actions, "heroic."
“We train for this. Any one of us in the same situation would have done the same thing. I just happened to be in the right place at the right time tonight," Evans said in the Sheriff statement.
Dezman Ellis has since been arrested for his suspected role in the shooting. A cash bail bond of $1.5 million was set for Ellis earlier this week.
