Charged: 56-year-old Michael Mangan of Kiel, accused of disrupting Trooper Trevor Casper's burial

MANITOWOC (WITI) – Police were concerned about “a potential threat to members of the Wisconsin State Patrol and (Trooper Trevor) Casper family due to a possible radical group affiliated with the suspect” who shot Casper when they approached a man who was at the cemetery for Casper’s funeral Monday, March 30th. This, according to a criminal complaint filed against Michael Mangan.

Michael Mangan

When Mangan resisted officers’ efforts to get him to leave the scene Monday, Mangan was arrested.

56-year-old Mangan made an initial appearance in court Thursday, April 2nd on counts of felony resisting an officer causing injury and misdemeanor counts of disorderly conduct, obstructing an officer and disrupting a funeral.

A signature bond was set.

Mangan returns to court Monday.

Mangan appeared in court Thursday after "refusing" to appear on Tuesday and Wednesday.

A criminal complaint now filed against him says Mangan was seen walking through the Saints Peter & Paul Cemetery carrying a bag with a cylindrical object which police thought could be a weapon.

When he was approached, Mangan contended he had a right to be at the public cemetery.

Police determined the object in his bag to be pipe insulation.

Officers informed him the cemetery was closed for Trooper Casper's funeral. After an officer placed his hand on Mangan’s back to guide him away from the scene, Mangan became more combative. Eventually, he was placed in a squad car.

“It was clear that the items Michael was carrying with him were not meant to be used or placed on any burial plots. It was clear that Michael’s intentions were disrupt the burial ceremony and to bring attention to himself,” the police report quoted in the criminal complaint says.

Although the criminal complaint does not offer specifics about the “possible radical group” authorities were worried about, Steven Timothy Snyder, the Michigan bank robbery suspect accused of shooting Trooper Casper after shooting and killing Thomas Christ in Wausaukee (following the bank robbery) was part of a group of skinheads who attacked black and Hispanic people nearly 20 years ago, court records show. The documents say he had several “white power” tattoos.

Mangan will next be in court on April 6th.