A Racine, Wisconsin, woman who was allegedly shot and attacked by her ex-boyfriend ran into a nearby auto shop pleading for help, but the terrifying encounter followed her inside, leaving employees and customers scrambling to get away.
Police say the woman’s 23-year-old former boyfriend, Luke Greuel, shot her and stabbed her in the head with a screwdriver on Aug. 18.
The woman, who goes by Honey on Facebook, provided video of the incident that shows her running from a home after gunshots rang out, desperately calling for someone to help her and screaming in panic. She enters an auto shop in the video, before the phone she’s recording on falls.
“What are you doing? Oh my God,” the woman can be heard saying in the footage. “Help me, help me, he’s got a gun.”
Searching for Refuge
She then ran into Stu’s Auto Services on Washington Avenue, where owner Stuart Brown said she was visibly terrified and screaming for help.
“She came running in and I’m walking over here, screaming her brains out, and I’m going, ‘What’s going on?’” Brown told CBS 58.
But the woman did not find safety inside the business for long. Brown said Greuel followed her into the shop carrying a handgun, turning what had initially appeared to be a place of refuge into another dangerous scene.
“He comes running in like this with a pistol and bam, in my face, and I said, ‘Whoa,’” Brown recalled.
Brown said he immediately warned his employees and a customer to leave, leaving the woman to fend for herself.
“I came running out here and I said to my guys and my customer, ‘Get out. Someone’s got a gun.’”
As people attempted to escape, one of Brown’s employees remained inside. The employee watched as Brown was attacked. Brown said Greuel struck her repeatedly with the firearm before turning the weapon toward the employee.
“She was down over here. He was pistol-whipping her, bam, bam, bam,” Brown said. He recalled the employee telling Greuel to get away from her before the gunman pointed the weapon directly at him. “Then he’s over here, he says, ‘Get off her,’ and he just turned around and pointed it right in his face. What’s he going to do?”
Brown said Greuel also pointed the gun at him. With the threat unfolding inside his business, Brown ran across the street to the fire department to seek help as the Greuel continued to assault the woman inside the shop.
“When I saw that gun, I was like, ‘Am I going to go home?’” Brown said.
‘He’s a Punk’
Police later arrested Greuel at the scene. Authorities say he admitted to shooting the woman. He faces charges of attempted first-degree intentional homicide, armed burglary and pointing a firearm at another person.
The woman remains hospitalized and is recovering from the attack, according to a family member who spoke with CBS 58. The woman has since made several posts on Facebook saying she has mixed feelings about the auto shop.
“I have mixed feelings but sh– we all are alive. I don’t want drama on who would of done what. and what Stu and them should of did. You can’t expect someone else to do what you would of did. It’s very sad situation,” she wrote.
Brown said he wants Greuel to remain behind bars.
“I want to see him locked up for quite a while,” he said. “He doesn’t deserve to be on the streets. He’s a punk. He’s an idiot.”
Greuel appeared in court Aug. 19, where a judge set his cash bond at $100,000. His preliminary hearing is scheduled for Sept. 2 at 8:30 a.m.
