On June 21, 1978, 52-year-old Michael Geszvain, a 23-year veteran of the Waukesha County Sheriff’s Department, was serving as a courtroom bailiff when prisoner Filemon Amaro Jr. suddenly struggled with him, seized Geszvain’s service handgun and opened fire. Geszvain was shot and fatally wounded; Sergeant Quin O’Brien was also shot during the melee, taken to hospital and died the following day. Judge Neal Nettesheim reportedly had to dive for cover as Amaro fired a shot into the ceiling above the bench.

Amaro used an attorney as a shield while exiting the courtroom, then seized county social worker Nellie Gurrath as a hostage during an hours-long flight from Waukesha toward Madison. Police surrounded the car in Madison; officers shot and wounded Amaro in the shoulder and took him into custody.

Amaro was tried beginning in late November 1978, found guilty on December 8, 1978, of two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of kidnapping, and sentenced to two life terms plus 35 years.