A Washington County sheriff's investigator who made more than 700 inquiries to find the owner of a handgun linked to a Lake Elmo shooting has been named investigator of the year by his peers.
Greg Reiter, 36, is an 11-year veteran of the Sheriff's Office. The recognition for his work on the case, which involved the shooting and attempted carjacking of Lake Elmo resident Julie Bever in 2003, comes from the Tri County Law Enforcement Association. That group represents about 130 law enforcement agencies and 700 police detectives in Minnesota and Wisconsin, said Rick Peterson, a police investigator and the association's treasurer.
Sheriff Bill Hutton said Reiter "did an outstanding job on the Bever case. He ... kept going and going on it."
Reiter's diligence resulted in the arrest last fall of Zachary Wiegand, a Polk County, Wis., resident. Wiegand was charged in Washington County with first-degree attempted murder, first-degree attempted robbery and four other felonies. Additional charges are pending against him in St. Croix County, Wis.
A Smith and Wesson 9-millimeter handgun that Minneapolis police found in May during a routine traffic stop matched bullet casings found at the scene of the Lake Elmo shooting. That's when Reiter, who had responded to the scene after Bever was wounded, began his exhaustive investigation.
"His tenacity on the case was second to none," said Commander Patrick Olson, who oversees the investigations division of the Sheriff's Office.
Reiter said he made hundreds of phone calls and sent hundreds of faxes to gun dealers, private gun owners and others who might determine who had registered the gun, which was purchased new in 1989. The gun had had several owners.
Kevin Giles
