A Delaware State Trooper has been cleared for shooting a Long Neck man who barricaded himself in a Millsboro-area home with his infant child and then shot at police with an AR-15 rifle late last year, according to the Delaware Department of Justice.
Michael Bartie, 32, remains in prison in connection with the incident. He was taken to Sussex Correctional Institution after recovering from surgery, which he underwent after being shot by trooper Daniel Korenyi. No one else was injured in the shooting.
Bartie’s standoff with police began shortly before 8:45 p.m. on Nov. 19, after the man’s fiancée called 911 to report the two had argued about Bartie using Tinder, a dating application.
INITIAL STORYMan hurt in exchange of fire with troopers in Millsboro: State police
The fiancée reported that Bartie had come to her home around 4 p.m. that afternoon but didn’t go inside. Instead, she said, he started drinking on the porch. The state Justice Department said four empty pints of Fireball Whiskey were later found at the residence.
At some point, the fiancée asked Bartie to come inside and see their 9-month-old son. That’s when she saw Tinder on Bartie’s phone and the two began arguing, according to the Justice Department.
The fiancée called 911 shortly thereafter.
On the call, she could be heard shouting at Bartie to give her the infant, according to the Justice Department. She also told the 911 call-taker that Bartie had a shotgun, a rifle and a pistol.
At some point, the state Justice Department said, her voice broke and she told police to hurry, saying that Bartie has ammunition. Then she began screaming that Bartie had a gun and locked himself in the master bedroom.
Multiple troopers, including Korenyi, rushed to the scene, according to the report. Korenyi later told prosecutors he knew Bartie because he’d taken away several guns – including the AR-15 – earlier in the year, after Bartie’s biological father in New Jersey had filed a protection from abuse petition.
The father later dropped the petition and Korenyi gave Bartie his guns back, prosecutors said.
When Korenyi arrived at the home, he spoke briefly on the phone with Bartie, asking why the man had barricaded himself in the house with his baby. Bartie replied that he’d been drinking but was “not drunk,” the report said. He refused to come outside with his son, but said troopers “could try to come inside and see him” – something Korenyi said he considered a threat, prosecutors wrote in the report.
Then, Bartie hung up.
Around the same time, other troopers began trying to evacuate neighbors. One trooper, thinking he was knocking on a neighbor’s door, accidentally knocked on the home Bartie was in, according to the Justice Department. At this point, Bartie’s fiancée had gotten out of the house.
According to that trooper, Bartie yelled at him from inside, saying, “I hope you have level four plates, and (expletive)off.” Bartie was referring to body armor. That trooper quickly ran back to his patrol car, the report said, and was trying to take cover when he heard on his radio that Bartie had come outside – a little more than an hour after police had first arrived.
A COMPREHENSIVE LIST:All of Delaware’s officer-involved shootings since 2005
According to prosecutors, Bartie had a flashlight that he’d switched to the strobe light feature. Because of the way the light flashed toward police, it was difficult for troopers on the ground to see him.
Several troopers tried to reason with Bartie, the report said, but he soon fired two shots. Korenyi fired back, hitting the man four times and knocking him to the ground.
After the shooting, a police helicopter that had been called in to assist radioed from above that Bartie was lying on the ground with the AR-15 about a foot away from him. Troopers, not knowing if Bartie was “playing possum,” remained behind their vehicles until a civilian arrived, according to the report.
That person – referenced in the report only as witness two – walked up to Bartie and grabbed his tactical vest and the AR-15. He then threw them onto a nearby driveway and troopers moved in, handcuffing Bartie and entering the home to check on the infant. Paramedics then rushed Bartie to the hospital, where he was treated.
Bartie had a fractured hip and a severed bowel from the shooting, the report said. The baby was found unharmed in his car seat in the master bedroom.
During their investigation, troopers found two spent .223-caliber rifle casings from the AR-15 Bartie had shot and another spent casing wedged into the rifle’s firing chamber. The gun, which had 27 live rounds still in its magazine, had jammed, prosecutors wrote, though Bartie also had a 9mm handgun on him when troopers began first aid.
Troopers also found a knife in the driveway along with a ballistic vest that had three rifle magazines loaded with a total of 51 live .223-caliber rounds, according to the report.
Inside the home, troopers found another rifle magazine on the kitchen counter and one by the bed. They also found a shell casing under a nightstand, ammunition on the closet floor, a box of ammunition and two rifle magazines in a closet, two more rifle magazines in a handgun case and a 12-gauge shotgun with two slug shot rounds and three buckshot rounds in the butt stock holder.
When police interviewed the person who had arrived on scene, he said he’d initially been told about what was going on by Bartie’s fiancée. He also said Bartie had an “alcohol problem,” and that Bartie and his fiancée “have issues due to his excessive drinking and his use of dating apps,” according to the Justice Department.
He said he drove over to the home because Bartie had called him and said police had shot him.
Based on this interview and numerous others, as well as forensic analyses, police determined Korenyi was justified in shooting Bartie. While all police in Delaware are now required to have body cameras – many agencies are still working to implement them – at the time, the troopers did not have the devices.
Though multiple patrol vehicles had cameras, no audio is available, the state Justice Department said, and the videos “have poor visuals due to the lighting in the area of the incident.”
They do “show the suspect’s flashlight strobing in the distance,” prosecutors wrote.
Bartie was one of three people shot last year by police in Delaware. He was the only one who survived. In 2020, seven people were shot by police in the state.
RELATED:Why friends and family are stunned by death of man fatally shot by Dewey Beach police
So far this year, there has been only one police shooting in Delaware, that of Rodney “Keef” Robinson, who was shot by a Dewey Beach police officer on March 19 as he ran. He died in the shooting, which later prompted family and friends to march for justice in Wilmington.
To this day, no police in the state have been charged in connection with a shooting.
Got a story tip or idea? Send to Isabel Hughes at ihughes@delawareonline.com. For all things breaking news, follow her on Twitter at @izzihughes_
