The state’s attorney has cleared three officers and will not charge them after they opened fire, leaving a 59-year-old man dead after he charged at them while armed with a knife in Highland Park.
In a letter obtained by Lake and McHenry County Scanner through a Freedom of Information Act request, Lake County State’s Attorney Eric Rinehart informed Highland Park Police Chief Lou Jogmen and Lake County Major Crime Task Force Commander Dan Thomas that his office reviewed the investigation from the June 20 officer-involved shooting in Highland Park.
Rinehart said his office completed the review and decided not to file criminal charges. “Thank you for your thorough investigation,” he said.
The incident occurred around 5 a.m. on June 20 after the Highland Park Police Department was called to the 900 block of Half Day Road in Highland Park for a well-being check call.
Lake County Major Crime Task Force Spokesman Christopher Covelli said officers received a call from a concerned driver who was passing by the area.
They reported seeing someone lying in the roadway and the person was nearly struck by a vehicle.
The caller stated the subject stood up and stumbled into a residence in the 900 block of Half Day Road.
Covelli said three Highland Park Police Officers responded to the scene but did not locate the man outside.
They knocked on the door of the address provided by the caller.
Brent Bucholtz, 59, of Highland Park, who lived at the residence, abruptly exited the home armed with a knife, bodycam video showed.
Officers quickly retreated toward the end of the driveway as Bucholtz chased after them.
A police report said Bucholtz held the knife in his right hand in a threatening manner while yelling, “Shoot me.”
The video showed the officers drawing their guns and ordering Bucholtz multiple times to drop the knife but he refused and they opened fire, striking him multiple times.
Bucholtz lived alone and no one was inside the home at the time of the shooting.
Officers called for paramedics while beginning lifesaving measures on Bucholtz.
Lifesaving measures were unsuccessful and Bucholtz was pronounced dead at the scene.
All of the officers involved were transported to the hospital for evaluations but no physical injuries were reported.
The Lake County Major Crimes Task Force conducted an independent investigation into the shooting.
A several-hundred-page investigation report said that Bucholtz had many contacts with law enforcement agencies relating to his erratic driving, erratic behavior, suicidal and homicidal statements, and posts on social media.
He also had a firearms restraining order placed on him by the Highland Park Police Department for social media posts from two months before the shooting.
The man’s mother told investigators he had been diagnosed with schizophrenia at a young age and did not finish college due to the disease, the report said.
Bucholtz was unemployed and had not had a job in several years because he was on disability due to his schizophrenia.
His mother said that Bucholtz became “increasingly agitated” in the days leading up to his death, the report said.
A cousin of Bucholtz told investigators she was worried for the safety of the community and sent letters to numerous police departments in which Bucholtz had contact with to warn them of his “dangerous and erratic behaviors.”