Star Tribune
Sheriff’s deputy shot and killed in western Wisconsin
A western Wisconsin sheriff’s deputy was shot and killed Saturday night, the third such on-duty shooting death of a law enforcement officer in the region in a month, officials said.
The St. Croix County Sheriff’s Office identified the slain deputy as Kaitie Leising, 29, who had been with the department since 2022. The suspect also is dead.
“We will miss her infectious smile and personality,” Sheriff Scott Knudson said in a statement. “She will be missed by all she touched.”
Leising was shot just outside Glenwood City, Wis., 60 miles east of the Twin Cities, at about 6:15 p.m., according to a release from the Wisconsin Department of Justice. She was responding to a report of a possible drunken driver, who was stuck in a ditch. Shots were exchanged shortly after she arrived, officials said.
The deputy was taken to a nearby hospital and died there, according to state officials.
“The [suspect] fled and was later found deceased in a wooded area with a gunshot wound. There is no threat to the community,” a Department of Justice news release said.
Wisconsin officials identified the suspect as Jeremiah D. Johnson, 34. He was evasive toward Leising’s requests for a field sobriety test, and after about eight minutes he turned toward Leising, drew a handgun and shot her, the agency said. Leising fired back three times, but Johnson got away, the state Justice Department said. Officers recovered a handgun near Johnson’s body, the state Justice Department said.
Body camera footage captured the deputy’s shooting, the agency said.
On Sunday afternoon, Leising’s body was escorted by a law enforcement procession from the Ramsey County Medical Examiner’s Office to a funeral home in Baldwin, Wis.
Emergency vehicles with lights flashing lined the overpasses on Interstate 94 in Minnesota and Wisconsin, and a massive American flag billowed atop the Baldwin exit.
Knudson said that funeral arrangements were pending, and that deputies and officers will stand vigil by Leising’s side until the services are complete.
At a home overlooking the shooting scene, Colonel Lightfoot said Sunday that he saw four vehicles at Wisconsin Hwy. 128 and County Road G — one of them a pickup truck driven by the alleged assailant. Two vehicles left, and two people in a second pickup truck were trying to pull the suspect from the ditch when the deputy arrived, he said.
“All of a sudden there were five shots fired, and a person took off running to the south-southwest of my property,” Lightfoot said. “And then I immediately called dispatch and let them know that an officer was down because I couldn’t see her.”
Lightfoot’s wife, Sarah, ran to the scene with towels to help stop the deputy’s bleeding.
“My wife felt for a pulse, but what I think she was feeling was her own pulse,” he said, adding the deputy was unresponsive.
Officers swarm scene
Lightfoot said dozens of squad cars and other vehicles swarmed the scene, and the investigation lasted into the night.
Glenwood City’s mayor confirmed the large law enforcement presence.
“Numerous agencies responded … to secure the safety of our community and residents as quickly as possible,” Robert Unruh said in a statement.
“Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family of the fallen officer, the St. Croix County Sheriff’s Office and all law enforcement,” Unruh wrote. “Our community was abruptly disturbed and exposed to an incident that greatly affected everyone in many ways and will continue to do so.”
On Sunday, blue ribbons hung from signs in a largely quiet downtown.
The Wisconsin Justice Department said the incident is being investigated by the Division of Criminal Investigation, with the help of neighboring law enforcement agencies, including the Wisconsin State Patrol, Wisconsin State Crime Lab and a DCI crime response specialist.
Agencies show support
The Sheriff’s Office and the deputy’s family received an outpouring of support.
Just before noon Sunday, nearly 200 prayers and condolences filled the St. Croix County Sheriff’s Facebook page, which features a black band on a sheriff’s badge.
Minneapolis police joined officers from Minnesota and Wisconsin overnight for a procession that escorted the deputy’s body to the Ramsey County Medical Examiner’s Office in St. Paul.
“Our deepest condolences to the family. The sacrifice will never be forgotten,” the Minneapolis Police Department posted on its own Facebook page.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with our St. Croix County Sheriff’s Office family dealing with the death of one of their deputies,” posted the Barron County, Wis., Sheriff’s Office on its own Facebook page.
Most recent deaths
In early April, two police officers were shot and killed in Barron County during a traffic stop in Cameron. Killed were officers Emily Breidenbach, 32, of the Chetek Police Department, and Hunter Scheel, 23, of the Cameron Police Department.
A western Minnesota sheriff’s deputy was shot and killed and two other law enforcement officers were injured while responding to a domestic dispute call April 15. Pope County Sheriff’s Deputy Joshua Owen died on his 44th birthday. The suspected shooter died when officers returned fire.
Star Tribune
Palestinian officials say an Israeli strike on a school-turned-shelter in northern Gaza killed 15
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — An Israeli strike on a school sheltering the displaced in northern Gaza on Thursday killed at least 15 people, including five children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
The Israeli military said the strike targeted dozens of Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants who had gathered at the Abu Hussein school in Jabaliya, an urban refugee camp in northern Gaza where Israel has been waging a major air and ground operation for more than a week.
Fares Abu Hamza, head of the ministry’s emergency unit in northern Gaza, confirmed the toll and said dozens of people were wounded. He said the nearby Kamal Adwan Hospital was struggling to treat the casualties.
“Many women and children are in critical condition,” he said.
The Israeli military said it targeted a command center run by both militant groups inside the school. It provided a list of around a dozen names of people it identified as militants who were present when the strike was called in. It was not immediately possible to verify the names.
Israel has repeatedly struck tent camps and schools sheltering displaced people in Gaza. The Israeli military says it carries out precise strikes on militants and tries to avoid harming civilians, but its strikes often kill women and children.
Hamas-led militants triggered the war when they stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting around 250 others. Some 100 captives are still inside Gaza, about a third of whom are believed to be dead.
Israel’s offensive has killed over 42,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. It does not differentiate between civilians and combatants but says women and children make up a little more than half of the fatalities.
Twin Amur tigers born at Como Zoo in August now have names — Marisa and Maks.
Two long-time volunteers who have worked with zookeepers to care for and teach the public about the zoo’s big cats came up with the names, the first to be born at the St. Paul zoo in more than 40 years.
Marisa, a name that the volunteers found to mean “spirited and tenacious,” call that a perfect reflection of her personality. The name also carries special significance for the Como Zoo community, as it honors a retired zookeeper of the same name who was instrumental in the care of large cats during her 43 years at the zoo, Como Zoo and Conservatory Director Michelle Furrer said.
The male cub has been named Maks, which is associated with meanings like “the greatest” or “strength and leadership.” The volunteers felt this was an apt description of the male cub’s confident demeanor and growing sense of leadership, Furrer said.
“Marisa and Maks aren’t just names; they’re a fun reminder of the passion and care that keep us committed to protecting wildlife every day,” Furrer said.
The newborns and their first-time mother, 7-year-old Bernadette, remain off view to allow for more bonding time, zoo officials said. The cubs’ father, 11-year-old Tsar, has been a Como resident since February 2019 and remains on view.
Fewer than 500 Amur tigers — also known as Siberian tigers — remain in the wild as they face critical threats from habitat loss, poaching and human-wildlife conflict, the zoo said.
Much of the wood waste in the metro area is sent to a processing site near Pig’s Eye Lake in St. Paul, where it is stored before being burned to produce energy at the St. Paul Cogeneration plant downtown.
Cogeneration provides power to about half of downtown and was originally built to manage elm-tree waste in response to Dutch elm disease. The plant burns approximately 240,000 tons of wood each year, according to Michael Auger, senior vice president of District Energy in St. Paul.
Jim Calkins, a certified landscape horticulturalist who has been involved in discussions about the problem, said he thinks using wood for energy is the most logical solution.
“The issue is, we don’t have enough facilities to be able to handle that, at least in the Twin Cities,” Calkins said. “So there has to be dollars to support transportation to get the wood to those places, or in some cases, to upgrade some of those facilities such that they are able to burn wood.”
Plans are in place to convert Koda Energy in Shakopee to burn ash wood, which could potentially handle around 40,000 tons of wood waste, but that would take around two years to establish, according to Klapperich.
In some areas of the state, cities have resorted to burning excess wood waste because they felt they had no other option. Open burning wood releases a lot of carbon into the air, Klapperich said.
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