Western Wisconsin towns mourn 2 police officers shot over the weekend

BARRON, Wis. — They lined the main highway, kids with bikes next to Vietnam veterans with American flags, hundreds of people performing one of the most solemn rituals a town can perform: bearing witness as the bodies of two slain police officers passed by.

Then, 95 law enforcement vehicles drove in, lights flashing but sirens off, the crowd hushed. Two flag-draped coffins were wheeled into a local funeral home, officers from all over the state forming a phalanx of grief around them.

As law enforcement in western Wisconsin honored two police officers killed over the weekend, the close-knit small towns where the officers worked reacted with a combination of sadness and disbelief that something so tragic happened here.

Officers Emily Breidenbach, 32, of the Chetek Police Department, and Hunter Scheel, 23, of the Cameron Police Department, both died Saturday during a traffic stop at about 3:30 p.m. in Cameron.

Officials released few details of the encounter. The officers made the stop "based on a warrant and to check welfare of the driver," Glenn Douglas Perry, 50, state officials said in a news release. They had been notified of "concerning behavior," the release said.

"During a traffic stop both Officers were encountered by an armed subject, gunfire was exchanged and both officers were killed," according to a separate news release Monday afternoon from the Chetek Police Department.

Both officers were pronounced dead at the scene about 50 miles north of Eau Claire, and the suspected shooter was taken to a nearby hospital and died there, the Wisconsin Department of Justice said. An expedited report about the incident will be publicly available within 45 days, officials said.

In the officers' neighboring towns, each home to about 2,000, residents remembered both as people who always brought humanity and kindness to their jobs. At a Monday afternoon news conference, both police chiefs' voices broke as they spoke of their colleagues, as did the county sheriff.

"There's bad in the world — too much bad in the world," Barron County Sheriff Chris Fitzgerald said. "We've had tragic events here in Barron County, but nothing like this."

In Cameron, not far from where Saturday's shootings occurred, Tina Schumaker cut a client's hair Monday afternoon at her business, Main Street Barbershop, and recalled how Breidenbach's commanding presence as a police officer was balanced by a friendly demeanor. It didn't matter whether it was in Chetek, where she worked, or in Cameron, where she lived — Breidenbach was friends with everyone, Schumaker said.

"You want a police officer who is out there like that," she said. "She always talked to everyone, just a genuine person."

A police officer from Barron County hadn't been shot and killed while on duty since Dec. 19, 1995, when a Rice Lake officer who was part of the Barron County Emergency Response Team was shot and killed while attempting to arrest a suspect in a neighboring county, Fitzgerald said.

On Monday, flags in both towns flew at half-staff. Porch lights glowed blue. A sign outside Z Bar, adorned with a blue stripe, read, "Hunter & Emily, In Our Hearts."

In front of the Chetek Police Department, Patti Reinagle put a bouquet of flowers on the hood of Breidenbach's police cruiser. By midafternoon, hundreds of flowers adorned the SUV. Reinagle pointed to what Breidenbach was doing earlier on Saturday — visiting Little Red Barn Dog Rescue — as an example of her character. Breidenbach had been training a therapy dog, Grizz, for the Police Department.

"She didn't just protect people — she protected animals, too," Reinagle said. "For Emily, it wasn't about handing out tickets. It was about, 'OK, time to go home, enough, enough.' It wasn't about arresting people. It was about what's right for the community."

Scheel's girlfriend, Camryn Gosdeck, wrote on Facebook that she and Scheel "had so much planned for our future and looked forward to growing old with one another. Because of this, I am absolutely heartbroken and never knew I could feel such an immense pain as having my other half ripped from me."

Breidenbach served in the Chetek Police Department since 2019 after starting her career with the Stoughton, Wis., Police Department, where she served about nine months.

Scheel served with the Cameron Police Department since 2022 and was a six-year member of the Army National Guard.

Sharon Green, assistant store leader at the Kwik Trip in Cameron, said Scheel had done everything with a smile when he worked at the convenience store. He stopped working there to head to the police academy.

"This was his dream, to be a police officer," she said. "He was such a good kid, a heart of gold — just his smile, his laugh. I'd say, 'How are you?' And he'd always say, 'Living the dream!' Then he'd just start laughing so hard because he knew I hated when he said that."

Green remembered once when a tiny baby turtle found its way into the store. Scheel rescued it in a coffee cup; the turtle is now full grown, and another store employee still has it.

"He just tried to do the right thing all the time," she said. "I'm just in shock. ... He just had so much more in life, and he was going to go far."

According to Wisconsin court records, Perry, of New Auburn, pleaded no contest to disorderly conduct and domestic abuse in October 2020. Earlier that year, his wife filed for divorce, which was granted in September 2021. In a ruling related to the divorce, the court "finds that there was domestic abuse in the marriage … and that primary placement with Mother is in the child's best interest," granting her sole legal custody, while Perry was granted visitation rights.

Afterward, court records show exchanges over child support and attorney's fees, including one in which Perry on Feb. 28 "called and wanted it noted that he has discovered fraud in his case." He was ordered to appear in court on March 30, and an arrest warrant was issued when he failed to do so.

The state's Division of Criminal Investigation is leading the inquiry into the gunfire, with assistance from other state and local law enforcement agencies.

No one answered the door at Breidenbach's home Monday. A next-door neighbor who runs an in-home day care said Breidenbach would come visit the children, even after working a 12-hour night shift.

"She was really good at what she did because she cared about everyone," said the neighbor, Georgia Crotteau.