Anti-Masker Arrested After Assaulting Menards Employee, Police Officer

A police officer was injured trying to arrest a man wanted in connection with an attack at a Menards store over their face mask policy.

Officers from the Hutchinson Police Department were called to the store after a 61-year-old man identified as Luke Alvin Oeltjenbruns, allegedly assaulted an employee with a piece of lumber after he was asked to wear a mask.

Oeltjenbruns left the store, but a short time later, officers spotted him in a nearby Walmart parking lot, and a “slow-speed pursuit” followed.

“The vehicle stopped in the area of Highway 15 and Freemont. When an officer engaged the suspect through the driver’s side window, the officer became trapped in the window, and the driver took off at a high rate of speed with the officer hanging onto the vehicle,” Hutchinson Police said in a statement.

“During the struggle, the officer was struck in the head with a hammer. The officer was taken to Hutchinson Health for his injuries and is in stable condition,” the police statement continued.

Oeltjenbruns was eventually taken into custody.

This happened yesterday in Minnesota, the suspect was a 61-year-old white man fleeing police. He wasn't shot or tased. pic.twitter.com/FEq39kssC9

— Fifty Shades of Whey (@davenewworld_2) April 15, 2021