AUDIO: Man Dies After Being Struck in Driveway by Wright Co. Deputy
On December 23, 2021, at approximately 7 p.m., a deputy with the Wright County Sheriff’s Office was responding to a medical for a person that had possibly fallen down outside.
According to a media release, the deputy arrived on the scene and did not see the victim on the ground in the un-lit driveway.
The deputy pulled into the driveway and at some point struck the man on the ground. Authorities said the deputy was driving at a slow speed at the time and rendered medical assistance at the scene before the victim was transported to Maple Grove Hospital, where he died a short time later.
In dispatch audio from the incident, emergency personnel can be heard urgently calling for rescue to assist with freeing the victim, who was trapped underneath the vehicle.
The Minnesota State Patrol incident report identified the deputy as Dustin Hatzenbeller, 37. He has been working for the Wright County Sheriff’s Office since September of 2020 and is currently on paid administrative leave.
The victim was identified as Harold Henry Welter, 84, who had previously been elected mayor of St. Michael, had served on the city council for a decade and was a volunteer firefighter for 23 years.
A medical examiner’s report listed Welter’s cause of death was from multiple blunt force injuries and his manner of death was an accident.
The Minnesota State Patrol is handling the investigation. The media release states that the deputy and the Sheriff’s Office are fully cooperating with the investigation. Road conditions were reported to be snowy and icy at the time of the incident.
