Detective honored for 2003 Lake Elmo case

To detective Greg Reiter, the 2003 shooting of a Lake Elmo woman never became a "cold case" even though five years passed before the arrest of Zachary R. Wiegand.

Reiter, who works in the investigations division of the Washington County Sheriff Office, has won the Deputy Sheriff of the Year Award for his diligence in tracing a handgun found in Minneapolis in 2008 to Wiegand. When it was determined that the gun matched bullet casings at the Lake Elmo shooting scene, Reiter sent more than 700 inquiries to find the owner.

"He's a real conscientious young man," said Pat Olson, who commands the investigations division. "He's very humble. He's very tenacious. When he starts working on something, he doesn't let it go."

Reiter was the lead investigator in the two-day crime spree in 2003, in which Wiegand shot a woman during a carjacking in Minnesota and held up two security guards in Hudson, Wis., among other crimes.

Reiter's statewide award came from the Minnesota Sheriff's Association, which represents all 87 counties. He has worked for the Sheriff's Office since 1996, starting as a temporary hire for the office's water patrol. He was hired as a patrol deputy in 1997, and worked as the Lake Elmo contract deputy. Reiter also been a hostage negotiator for the special response team since 2004.

Earlier this year, Wiegand was sentenced to 12 years in prison for the Lake Elmo shooting. He was sentenced to 26 1/2 years last month in St. Croix County, Wis., for additional felonies related to the shooting.

KEVIN GILES