A Wisconsin traffic stop turned deadly after a man fled from police, called 911 during the chase, and told dispatchers he had a gun and would shoot officers if they stopped him.
Midwest Safety reported that the incident happened on February 2, 2024, after an officer stopped 36-year-old Lawrence Drenan for driving without tail lights. What began as a routine stop quickly changed when the officer noticed signs that Drenan may have been impaired and asked him to step out of the vehicle.
Instead, Drenan drove away.
The pursuit that followed was not the fastest chase officers had ever seen. At first, speeds hovered around 50 to 65 mph, with light traffic. But the danger came from what Drenan was saying, what officers believed he might have, and the way the situation was moving toward a violent end.
A Tail Light Stop Turns Into A Chase
The first officer approached Drenan’s vehicle and told him why he had been stopped.
“The reason I stopped you is you don’t have any tail lights on,” the officer said.
Drenan said the lights were not automatic and suggested they should be working now. The officer asked for a driver’s license, and Drenan said he did not have it with him.
As they spoke, the officer asked where he was coming from and why he seemed so eager to leave. Drenan talked about being homeless and said he wanted to go home.
The officer then noticed more concerning details.
He said there was an open can of Steel Reserve behind Drenan’s seat, and he observed that Drenan’s eyes were glossy and his speech was slurred. The officer asked him to step out of the vehicle.
Drenan refused.
When the officer told him not to put the car in drive and not to leave, Drenan took off. The officer immediately called out that the driver was fleeing and began following him.
The 911 Call Changes Everything
As officers pursued him, Drenan called 911 himself.
“County 911, where is your emergency?” the dispatcher asked.
Drenan answered that he was in a chase, though he quickly corrected himself and said it was not even a high-speed chase because he was only going about 65 mph.
Then he made the threat that changed how officers handled the pursuit.
“If they stop me, let the cops know, if they stop me, I got a gun here,” Drenan told the dispatcher. “I’m going to start shooting.”
The dispatcher tried to keep him talking and asked where the gun was. Drenan said it was to his left but refused to say what kind of weapon it was.
“If they stop me, I will shoot them all to death,” he said.
Dispatch relayed that information to the officers in the pursuit. One officer then told the others they would no longer try to box him in because he had reportedly claimed to have a gun.
That was a critical shift. Before the call, officers appeared to be considering ways to contain the vehicle. After the threat, they had to treat the stop as a potential armed confrontation.
Officers Back Off And Plan For Spikes
During the chase, officers discussed spike strips and mutual aid from nearby agencies.
One officer asked for county units and later requested help from Winnebago County. They also discussed whether anyone nearby had PIT training in case spike strips failed.
Traffic remained light, which likely helped reduce the risk to uninvolved drivers. But Drenan’s statements made clear that the danger was not only on the roadway.
At one point, he told the dispatcher he was almost out of gas and planned to flip the car once he ran out.
“I’m not going back to jail,” Drenan said. “They’ll have to kill me.”
He also said that as soon as he stopped, he was coming out the door shooting because it was “me or them.”
The dispatcher urged him not to do that and tried to keep him on the phone. Officers, meanwhile, continued tracking him and preparing for a forced stop.
This is the kind of call that leaves little room for comfort. A person who says he is willing to die and kill others forces officers into a narrow and dangerous decision space, where every movement may be read as the beginning of an attack.
A Stop On The Frontage Road
Eventually, Drenan’s vehicle left the main road and ended up on a frontage road.
Officers said the vehicle was smoking and warned others to stay back.
When Drenan got out, officers could not immediately tell what was in his hand. One officer called out that he had something, though he could not identify it.
“Hey man, don’t do it,” an officer yelled. “Put your hands up.”
Multiple officers shouted commands, telling Drenan to show his hands and stop. They also tried to talk to him.
“Buddy, this is not a big deal,” one officer said. “Relax.”
Officers called him Ben at one point and tried to slow the moment down, telling him they could talk.
But Drenan continued refusing commands, and officers reported that he was reaching around and telling them to shoot him.
One officer said over the radio that they could not see his hands.
The scene had the awful tension of an armed standoff, even though officers still did not know for certain whether Drenan actually had a gun.
Shots Fired After Officers Say He Reached
The final moments unfolded quickly.
Officers continued ordering Drenan to keep his hands up. One officer asked whether an object in his right hand was a gun.
Then shots were fired.
“Shots fired,” an officer radioed. “Suspect is down.”
Officers still could not see Drenan’s hands immediately after he fell and called for EMS right away.
One officer later said Drenan had told him he was going to shoot him. Another officer said he had tried to talk to him for a long time.
The emotion in that moment is hard to miss. Officers were still working the scene, still trying to secure Drenan, and already processing that the confrontation had ended the way everyone had been trying to avoid.
Midwest Safety later reported that Drenan was pronounced dead at the scene after lifesaving measures were attempted.
No firearm was recovered from him.
Autopsy And Investigation Findings
According to Midwest Safety, an autopsy later found that Drenan’s blood alcohol concentration was 0.198, more than twice the legal limit.
The channel also reported that Sergeant Luzar, the officer who fired his weapon, was not criminally charged in connection with the incident.
That detail is important because the threat officers were dealing with was based on Drenan’s own statements, his refusal to comply, and his movements after the pursuit stopped. The fact that no gun was found later does not erase what officers heard during the chase: he had repeatedly told dispatch he had a gun and intended to shoot.
It is a grim reminder that words can shape an encounter in real time. Officers on scene cannot wait for hindsight. They have to react to what they reasonably believe is happening in that moment.
Still, the absence of a firearm makes the ending feel even more tragic. A man who said he would shoot officers did not have the weapon he claimed to have, but by then he had created a situation where officers could not safely assume he was bluffing.
The Host’s Reflection On A Dangerous Mindset
At the end of the video, Midwest Safety’s host reflected on how difficult these calls can be for police.
The host said one of the hardest parts of the job is realizing that some people have already made peace with destroying their own lives before an officer even gets out of the car.
He described the 911 call as haunting, not because Drenan was asking for help, but because he seemed to have already decided there was no way back.
That observation fits the video. Drenan did not simply flee. He called dispatch to announce the threat, said he would flip the car, said he would not go back to jail, and told officers in effect that the stop would end in death.
The host said that once someone stops caring what happens to them, every decision becomes heavier for everyone else.
That is the painful center of this case. The officers still tried to stop the vehicle safely. The dispatcher tried to keep Drenan talking. Officers at the end tried to get him to show his hands and talk.
But the encounter had already been poisoned by threats, intoxication, fear, and a stated willingness to die.
A Routine Stop With No Routine Ending
The case began with tail lights and a possible impaired driver.
It ended with a pursuit, a 911 threat to shoot officers, a standoff on a frontage road, and a fatal police shooting.
There is no clean lesson that makes the outcome feel simple. Drenan’s death is tragic. The officers were placed in a dangerous situation. The dispatcher had to listen to him threaten violence while trying to keep him engaged. And everyone involved was operating under the pressure of a man claiming he had a gun.
Midwest Safety’s report shows how fast a basic traffic stop can become something far more dangerous when a driver flees and makes threats that officers cannot ignore.
The final facts make the story even more unsettling: a high blood alcohol level, no gun recovered, and no criminal charges for the officer who fired.
It was a chase that began with a traffic violation, but the real turning point came when Drenan picked up the phone and told 911 he was ready to shoot.
Raised in a small Arizona town, Kevin grew up surrounded by rugged desert landscapes and a family of hunters. His background in competitive shooting and firearms training has made him an authority on self-defense and gun safety. A certified firearms instructor, Kevin teaches others how to properly handle and maintain their weapons, whether for hunting, home defense, or survival situations. His writing focuses on responsible gun ownership, marksmanship, and the role of firearms in personal preparedness.
