Man charged with firing bullet that hit car on highway
A 39-year-old man accused of firing a shot that struck a car on a nearby highway while he was target shooting with his new 9mm handgun was charged last week in Ozaukee County Circuit Court with a felony.
Robert A. Zettler, who has a Kewaskum address listed in court records, faces one count of second-degree recklessly endangering safety.
According to a criminal complaint, a woman told a sheriff’s deputy that mid-day on Friday, March 1, she was driving north on Highway Y when she heard several gunshots and the loud sound of something hitting her car.
After pulling into her driveway, she noticed a dent in the door of her Subaru Forester.
The deputy saw a dent in the rear driver’s side door that was consistent with a projectile hitting the vehicle. The projectile did not go through the door, but the paint was missing around the dent.
The woman’s husband went to talk to Robert Zettler and saw him taking down targets from a wooden dresser and walking back to a house with a firearm, the complaint states.
When contacted by the deputy, Zettler said he was sighting his new 9mm handgun and was aiming down at a target, which was a dresser. Zettler said that when the woman’s husband confronted him about the damage to the car, he offered to pay to have it repaired, according to the complaint.
Zettler gave the deputy the gun, which was a Sig Sauer P320X.
The deputy saw that the shooting area consisted of a dresser with multiple bullet holes in it, and behind it was a 5 to 9-foot-tall brush pile with a bench that also had bullet holes in it. Ten yards east of the brush pile was a 6-foot dirt berm, which was about 120 yards from Highway Y, the complaint states.
Zettler is scheduled to make his first court appearance before Ozaukee County Circuit Judge Sandy Williams on April 9.
Second-degree recklessly endangering safety is punishable by a maximum five years in prison and five years of extended supervision.
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