La Crosse’s DA explains some processes, after 34-year-old is sentenced Thursday to 15 years for shooting police officer

Nearly a year and a half after a confrontation with a La Crosse police officer, that led to the two shooting each other, Allen Kruk was sentenced Thursday.

The 34-year-old La Crosse man will spend 15 years in prison for shooting La Crosse Police Officer Dustin Darling back in August of 2019, as well as another five years of supervision.

Darling was shot in the chest but was relatively unharmed physically because he was wearing a bulletproof vest. Darling did shoot first, according to La Crosse County District Attorney Tim Gruenke, but only as Kruk was drawing his weapon.

Kruk was shot multiple times and spent nearly a month in the hospital.

Talking with Gruenke on La Crosse Talk PM, after Thursday’s trial, he was asked whether he gets the police department’s opinion when suggesting a prison sentence.

“I discussed it with Officer Darling and made sure he and any member of his family understood what was happening, what we were recommending, and he understood why I was recommending it, and that he was OK with it,” Gruenke said. “I wouldn’t ignore what he felt about it

“I didn’t talk to the police department as a whole. I just focus on the officer involved. … That’s really what I would do with any victim.”

Gruenke said this was his first case in 25 years in La Crosse, involving an officer being shot. He did bring up the, perhaps, closest thing he experienced was being asked to handle some post-conviction things over an officer being stabbed.

Gruenke continued to detail the process of sentencing in the Kruk case, or just a case where an officer is harmed.

“There are times in cases when, maybe the investigating officer feels strongly that something more should happen,” Gruenke said. “But I don’t represent the police. They’re entitled to their views, which may be different than mine.

“But I try to explain what I’m doing and why, and hopefully, in the long run, they trust my judgment and think I’m generally getting it right.”

Kruk pleaded no contest to the shooting. Gruenke explained why he did that versus pleading guilty.

“He admits that we can prove the case against him, but because he was basically on a meth binge and out of his mind when this happened,” Gruenke said. “He didn’t qualify as ‘not guilty’ by reason of mental disease or defect, but he still doesn’t have a lot of memory or thoughts about what was going on, and probably pled ‘no contest’ because he can’t really say honestly, at that time, he knew what he was thinking.”

Kruk gave an emotional apology for what he did.

Gruenke explained whether or not that process has any effect on the judge’s sentencing.

“I don’t doubt that he’s sincere that he really regrets what he did,” Gruenke said. “There are some cases where maybe you question it, but I think the judges take that into account.

“You certainly punish people less if they’ve already kind of learned their mistake and already acknowledged what they did was wrong, versus people who still don’t get it or still think they were in the right. I think it makes it seem more dangerous.”