The Joplin Globe, Joplin, MO

Local News

August 13, 2008

<img src="http://www.joplinglobeonline.com/images/zope/policeandfire.gif" border=0 > 11:52 a.m. Investigation clears JPD officers involved in Saturday shooting

A Missouri State Highway Patrol investigation has cleared two Joplin police officers of any wrongdoing in the shooting Saturday night of an armed, suicidal man.

Both the state patrol and a Joplin Police Department internal-affairs review determined that Officers Ben Cooper and Freddie Alaniz acted in accordance with the department’s use-of-force policy in drawing and firing their weapons on Milton E. Ganz, 38.

Ganz was treated for a single gunshot wound to the abdomen following the incident.

Ganz, a former lieutenant with the Jasper County Sheriff’s Department, was armed with a .357-caliber revolver and allegedly pointed it at Cooper as the officers were responding to a 911 call from Ganz’s wife reporting that he had a gun and was threatening to kill himself at their residence.

Cooper and Alaniz had been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation.

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