A park meant for solace and reflection quickly turned into disarray Wednesday night.
Wauwatosa police were called to Pine Lawn Memorial Park around 9 p.m. after a physical fight broke out between two people at a remembrance event at the cemetery.
Police said in a release that a 37-year-old man tried to punch an officer trying to break up the fight, prompting another officer to taser him.
After the officers regained control of the man, he went into medical distress and at one point was not breathing.
Paramedics began life-saving measures. The man is now in the hospital in critical condition.
TMJ4's Mariam Mackar spoke on the phone with Christine Toson, the president at Pine-Lawn Memorial Park, who said the cemetery had no idea what happened until detectives arrived the next morning.
"From what I know, it was a two-year anniversary of a person's death and their family and friends were gathering," said Toson. "That [event] was just completely done by the family, we didn't even know that it was taking place."
She told Mackar that at that point in the night, people shouldn't have even been inside the park.
"After the sun sets, the cemetery's off limits, however, we do not close the gates. We just hope people respect that. It's very unfortunate that it happened."
Three Wauwatosa officers are on administrative leave as a result of the incident.
In a release, police said, "Our top priority is preserving and protecting life. We are trained to use the lowest amount of force necessary to achieve control."
No other injuries were reported and so far no charges have been filed.
Waukesha police are leading the investigation into what happened.
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