Racine Harbor incident; gun drawn during ice fishing dispute | FOX6 Milwaukee

Racine Harbor incident; gun drawn during ice fishing dispute

A breach of ice fishing etiquette in Racine led to the arrest of an Illinois man, and it left a Wisconsin man harboring bad feelings about the entire incident.

The Racine County Sheriff’s Office said it started as an argument over being too close to each other on the ice. Things then got dicey when one of the men pulled out a gun.

What we know:

The ice fishing fallout happened just before sunrise early Sunday morning, Jan. 12, at the Racine Harbor.

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Justin Dilley said he and his girlfriend were the first to arrive on the harbor when two men set up their shanty 10 yards away.

"I truly feel like if I would have gotten aggressive with the guys that I would be laying there on the ice dead right now," Dilley said. "As I’m setting up, I’m like, ‘are you guys going to set up right here?’ and they go, ‘yeah, why, do you have any suggestions?’ and I’m like, ‘my dog is going to bark the whole time and it’s a little close.’" 

After a few minutes, he said he calmly approached the two men about fishing etiquette.

"It's only us people by ourselves, nobody else is out here, I don’t know why you have to set up this close. I go, ‘I don’t understand you guys.’"

"The guy charges me and he goes, ‘talk now, talk now,’ and he gets right in my face and I think I’m about to get pushed," he recalled. "I’m just waiting to get punched and the other guy [...] waves out his pistol in my direction and all over the place."

That’s when Dilley said he called 911.

What's next:

Officers arrived and arrested 59-year-old Luis Herrera of Highland Park, Ill., for disorderly conduct and endangering safety with a weapon.

Luis Herrera

The Racine County Sheriff’s Office said they confiscated a gun on the scene.

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"In my mind, I didn’t know what was going to happen," Dilley said. "At first I thought I was going to get punched then I thought I was going to get shot."

Dilley said he would like to see Herrera face harsher penalties and also believes the other person should have been charged.

No injuries were reported.

The Source:  

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