Police: Woman Killed By Car After Wis. Bar Fight, 2 Arrested

BALSAM LAKE, Wis. (WCCO) -- Two men have been arrested following a bar fight in western Wisconsin last weekend that ended with the death of a woman who was struck by a car, police said.

According to the Polk County Sheriff's Office, the incident happened at the Staples Lake Bar in Johnstown Township at about 2:30 a.m. on Saturday.

Police say that they were called to the bar on reports of a fight involving injuries. When they arrived, they found multiple injured victims, but the most serious was 35-year-old Michelle Lowe of Luck, Wis., who was found lying in the parking lot outside the bar.

"This is the extreme of a bar fight gone bad," Polk County Sheriff's Office Captain Steve Smith said.

Smith says Lowe watched as someone struck a woman in the bar and that's when she stood up.

"The victim interjected herself into the fight because I've been told she saw another female party who was pushed and knocked to the ground," Smith said.

Witnesses told police that she had been struck by a car as it fled the lot.

She was taken to Cumberland Hospital, where she was pronounced dead of her injuries.

Investigators received the license plate number from witnesses and tracked the vehicle to Barron County. They arrested the vehicle's owner as well as another man who police say was also inside the vehicle, both 26 years of age.

Benjamin Biron, of Comstock, Wis., is being held on pending charges of homicide by intoxicated use of a motor vehicle. Ryan Mazurek, of Barronett, Wis., is being held on substantial battery for injuries related to the incident.

The owner of the bar, Billy Sallander, said Lowe came in about once a week. He said she had a bubbly personality.

"If it had been someone else, she would have been here and she would have been one of the ones helping is us out," Sallander said.

Her obituary, which says she loved Nascar and playing billiards, can be found here.