CHIPPEWA COUNTY, Wis. — The Chippewa County District Attorney finds that officers responded with “reasonable acts of self-defense and defense of others” after an officer-involved shooting left one person dead.
The incident from December 21, 2025 started around 11:30pm in the Town of Lafayette. Police responded to a domestic disturbance where 49-year-old Matthew Luke of Chippewa Falls allegedly fired multiple 9mm rounds at a home and then fleeing before police arrived. Chippewa County Sheriff’s deputies tried a traffic stop but Luke fled, eventually crashing his car near County Highway K and 50th Avenue.
He then fired at officers, hitting at least one sheriff’s squad car and an armored vehicle. The Eau Claire Regional SWAT Team was called in to assist. Eau Claire Police Department Detective Zacharia Becker and Wisconsin State Patrol Trooper Joseph Desprezdis charged their weapons, hitting and killing Luke.
After the investigation, Chippewa County District Attorney Wade Newell found that officers took actions “based upon concerns for the safety of officers outside of the armored vehicle, and the fact that they were in a residential area, and fired two slow and deliberate shots to stop the continued threat posed by Luke”.
The District Attorney determined “that the actions of law enforcement were reasonable given the totality of the circumstances, and are legally justified acts of self-defense and defense of others”.
