Deputy cleared in boy's fatal shooting on Wisconsin Bad River reservation

MADISON – A prosecutor has cleared a sheriff’s deputy in a 14-year-old boy’s death.

Ashland County Sheriff’s Deputy Brock Mrdjenovich shot and killed Jason Pero in November. Investigators said the deputy saw Pero walking around with a knife outside his house on the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa reservation and fired after the boy lunged at him.

Ashland County District Attorney Michael Nieskes said in a letter Friday to the state Justice Department and Sheriff Mick Brennan that the shooting was justified.

Nieskes noted that Pero called police from his home and said someone was walking around outside his house with a knife. He also said an autopsy showed Pero had fentanyl, an opioid pain medication, in his system and a number of apparently self-inflicted cuts on his arms.