‘We avoided a mass shooting’: Suspect hits man with firearm, points firearm at families

By Grace Houdek

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    FITCHBURG, Wisconsin (WKOW) — The Fitchburg Police Department said it’s grateful for the way the community handled a frightening situation in April.

Officers responded to the 2800 block of Index Road on April 13 just after 3 p.m. The building has been used as an indoor facility for soccer matches.

According to Captain Edward Hartwick, the initial report was for a man shooting at people.

“You can imagine the response that that generates from our officers. When our officers got there, they determined that no one had been shot, but an individual had come in with a gun and had struck another individual, causing pretty significant injuries to him, and just as concerning is that he had also pointed the gun at multiple people in the building that were there watching soccer, including families and children that were there,” Hartwick said.

The suspect has been identified as 32-year-old Willmar Ray Cabarcas Polo. Police say he did not fire the gun, but hit someone in the back of the head with it. Hartwick said they don’t know the background, but believe it had to do with a confrontation over a previous soccer match.

“It sounds as though they know each other through ongoing soccer matches, and we learned that there had been some sort of issue at a previous match, and that in this instance, the suspect had been watching from the crowd that day and then had approached this individual and they had discussed their disagreement from a previous match,” he said.

After the incident, Hartwick said the department shifted their focus to finding where Cabarcas Polo could be as he left the scene. He called it a “significant incident of danger to our community.”

“We executed a search warrant at his apartment the following day and did not locate him or anything of significance, and so we set about trying to find where he may have gone to. We learned that he had likely fled the state, and eventually, through some coordination with other law enforcement agencies, were able to find him in Addison, Texas, just outside of Dallas,” Hartwick said.

Cabarcas Polo appeared in court on Friday where the court commissioner set his bail at $30,000 cash. He posted that bail and is expected to report to pretrial services Tuesday.

“We feel very fortunate that we avoided a mass shooting,” Hartwick said. “Any time when tempers flare like they seem to have flared in this incident, people aren’t making the best decisions, and then you introduce a firearm into that situation. We could have had a very bad day in our community with this firearm being involved.”

Hartwick said through their investigation, they learned the suspect had been arrested a couple of years ago by the US Border Patrol and had identified as a Venezuelan national.

“That heightened our concern again, after this incident, that he may be trying to flee the country, and so again, increased our need to find him as soon as possible,” Hartwick said.

There was a detainer placed on Cabarcas Polo by immigration. However, it appears to be lifted and the circumstances surrounding that are unclear.

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