MILWAUKEE — A community is in mourning after two Wisconsin police officers died in the line of duty.
We now know the officers who died in the line of duty Saturday afternoon in Northwest Wisconsin.
In a news conference Monday, it was revealed the two killed were 32-year-old Emily Breidenbach of Chetek who responded to a traffic stop. She had five years of experience. First with the Stoughton Police Department in Dane County, and then four years with the Chetek Police Department.
The other officer killed, 23-year-old Hunter Scheel of Cameron, provided help before a shootout ensued. Officer Scheel graduated from the law enforcement academy in December and just went into service last year.
The man they stopped, 50-year-old Glenn Perry, was also shot and later died at a hospital.
The shooting happened just after 3:30 p.m. Saturday near the Village of Cameron in Barron County, about 45 miles northwest of Eau Claire.
Since then, Chetek community members set up a memorial outside the police department. A procession took the bodies of the officers to the medical examiner's office in Minnesota Monday morning. The procession from the medical examiner's office will return to Barron later in the day Monday.
The Milwaukee Police Department (MPD) plans to send its Honor Guard to those upcoming funerals. The MPD public information office replied to TMJ4's inquiry by e-mail, "MPD anticipates members of our Honor Guard attending; however, it depends on when the funeral services are held."
It is a sorrow they share as five Milwaukee officers have been killed in about the last five years.
Unfortunately for MPD, tragedies like these are all too common. The vice president of the Milwaukee Police Association, Alexander Ayala, tells TMJ4 he has conducted hundreds of traffic stops, and they are anything but routine.
With 23 years of experience with MPD, Ayala believes traffic stops are the most dangerous part of the job because of, "The unknown. You pulled over a car for maybe a minor infraction, right? A tail light out. But, the person inside the vehicle might be wanted for homicide. So they're thinking in their mind 'I'm not going back.'"
He can also relate to fellow officers in Barron County grieving this double loss, "I know we are still hurting for (Officer Peter) Jerving and his death so I can only imagine what they're going through."
Officer Jerving was shot and killed while investigating a suspected armed robbery in Milwaukee on Feb. 7, 2023.
Ayala knows what the co-workers of both Barron County fallen officers may be dealing with, "They're mourning the loss of their brothers and sisters, and now you have two different police departments that are going through this at the same time."
Captain Joe Kell with Cedarburg Police says they can relate to the closeness of a small department. Cedarburg has a total of 22 officers on the force.
Captain Kell says traffic stops involve split-second decisions, "Is the person speeding because he's late for work or is it a shoplifter that needs to flee the area?"
Captain Kell is working to learn more about funeral plans in order to possibly send one of their own to show support.
In the meantime, Ayala says they created a non-profit for the survivors of MPD's fallen officers called, Fallen Heroes Inc., "We have given just one of the family members close to $100,000."
They hope their presence in the coming days will send a message to the loved ones of the two who have fallen and fellow officers in blue in Barron County, they are not alone.
Ayala said, "The whole department hurts, the whole city hurts, the community hurts."
It’s about time to watch on your time. Stream local news and weather 24/7 by searching for “TMJ4” on your device.
Available for download on Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, and more.
