GREENFIELD — Greenfield’s police chief and mayor are sharing concerns with TMJ4 News after a Greenfield man is allowed back into the community six years after being charged for allegedly stabbing and killing a man.
Twenty-five-year-old Amando Lang was ruled mentally incompetent to stand trial.
Greenfield police say they didn’t know he was released back into the community for treatment until they responded to a mental health crisis for Lang at an apartment building over the weekend.
“You’ve got to be kidding me. Who did this? How did this happen?” Greenfield’s mayor Mike Neitzke said. “This should never happen. This should never ever, ever, ever happen.”
Watch: Greenfield officials outraged as man accused of 2019 killing back in community
Fred Timm says he was enjoying Father’s Day at his apartment in Greenfield when police swarmed the complex for a man having a mental health crisis.
Timm had no idea it was for his former neighbor, Amando Lang, a man Timm thought he’d never see again.
“Is it a safety concern knowing what he’s accused of doing?” Reporter Ben Jordan asked.
“Absolutely,” Timm replied. “This is a nice community and I’m sure I speak for my neighbors. He needs to be somewhere and I don’t believe he’s all of a sudden mentally competent. Apparently not.”
Back in 2019, Lang was charged with first-degree intentional homicide after he was accused of stabbing 49-year-old Ben Christianson in the neck along 60th and Armour. Acting Police Chief Eric Lindstrom remembers the random attack that shook the Greenfield community.
“This was a brutal homicide right out on the street,” Acting Chief Lindstrom said. “That was a violent unprovoked attack.”
Court documents revealed Lang was seen on home surveillance video walking toward 60th Street before the stabbing and then running back minutes later.
After a judge ruled Lang was mentally incompetent, court records show he was sent to an institution. This week, the DA’s office says it learned Lang was released back into the community for treatment at some point.
“I was in shock just like all of our officers were in shock that he was actually there. We all believed that while he was pending whatever criminal process or psychiatric processes he was going through, that he was in some sort of secure custody,” Acting Chief Lindstrom said.
Mayor Neitzke sees it as a significant public safety concern.
“This isn’t a situation where somebody may have stolen a car, was mentally incompetent, wasn’t necessarily a risk to the community, and is being placed in a halfway house,” he said. “This is someone who was charged with first-degree murder and the facts and the circumstances are so brutal, it’s beyond comprehension. For me, how this could happen? Somebody dropped the ball. What’s even more unacceptable to me now is we don’t even know where he is."
Court records show the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s office called a hearing for Monday. The DA’s office says prosecutors will ask for Lang’s competency to be reevaluated to see if he can be held criminally responsible for the 2019 stabbing.
TMJ4's efforts to reach Lang and his parents on Wednesday were unsuccessful.
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