Man shot by deputy in Montrose allegedly said during earlier clash he’d rather die than be arrested

The man who was shot and wounded last week during an armed standoff with sheriff’s deputies outside a store in a Wright County town has had similar clashes with law enforcement in the past 1½ years and in one recent instance said he would rather be killed than surrender, according to court filings.

The state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) on Thursday identified the man as Matthew Lyrek, 38, of Montrose and added that he was in good condition at HCMC.

Seven deputies used some form of force during the last week’s encounter, the BCA said. The agency identified the deputy who wounded Lyrek as Andrew Lundeen, who has eight years of law enforcement experience.

A search warrant affidavit filed by the Wright County Sheriff’s Office last week revealed that Lyrek got in an armed standoff with deputies at his home in January 2023 that ended with the deputies leaving and his wife later getting a restraining order against him.

After three cases charging him violating an order for protection were filed late last year, deputies attempted to pull him over in his pickup truck on March 29, the affidavit continued. He fled to his home and refused to surrender, prompting them to leave without making an arrest, the filing added.

While in his pickup, according to felony charges filed in connection with this encounter, Lyrek “made statements indicating the deputies needed to leave or Defendant would execute his Second Amendment rights, and deputies would have to kill Defendant because was armed.”

The affidavit also revealed that complaints from citizens were made to law enforcement about his “antigovernment rants” on social media and his baseless claim that Sheriff Sean Deringer put his wife up to pursuing the restraining order.

The social media outbursts against Deringer and District Judge Geoffrey Tenney in November became “more threatening with [an] increased antigovernment tone,” the filing continued. In early December, a photo of a Bible, handgun and high-powered rifled with the caption, “Come and take me you tyrant scum.”

According to the BCA:

Deputies found Lyrek about 1 p.m. at the Dollar General Store in the 600 block of Nelson Boulevard and intended to arrest him in connection with several outstanding warrants.

While the deputies tried to apprehend him, Lyrek drew a handgun. Deputies deployed Tasers, used “less-than-lethal force” and Lundeen fired his rifle, hitting Lyrek.

The BCA said in a news release that its crime scene personnel recovered two handguns from Lyrek and found additional guns in his vehicle. However, the Wright County search warrant affidavit said “nothing of evidentiary value” was found in the vehicle, a pickup truck. The filing did say a search of Lyrek’s home turned up several guns, 29,000 rounds of ammunition and a Taser.

Bonney Bowman, with the BCA’s Force Investigations Unit, addressed the potential conflict by saying, “We are unable to comment on the contents of another agency’s warrants. … Our news release is accurate.”

Sheriff Sean Deringer explained on Friday that “we towed that vehicle from the scene after the BCA had conducted their investigation and had collected the evidence that they found in that vehicle.”

“When we searched the same vehicle under our search warrant that we did not find anything of evidentiary value as the BCA had collected everything.  The BCA is conducting their investigation but that does not remove us from our responsibility for conducting our own independent investigation,” he said.

Wright County sheriff’s deputies do not have body-worn cameras. Portions of the incident were captured by their squads’ cameras, and that video is being reviewed as part of the investigation.

One deputy was on the scene undercover, and their identity cannot be released. The other deputies involved in the incident have law enforcement experience ranging from 6 to 32 years and were identified as Matthew Bilitz, Heath Gilliham, William Kenyon, Jeff McMackins and Jason Oltmanns.

Once the BCA finishes its investigation, the findings will be forwarded to the Wright County Attorney’s Office without recommendation for review to consider whether the deputies’ actions were legally justified.

An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported the location where Matthew Lyrek was shot.