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.
