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St. Croix County Sheriff’s deputy killed Saturday
Officials said 29-year-old deputy Kaitie Leising had been with the department since 2022. She was fatally shot responding to a call Saturday near Glenwood, WI.
GLENWOOD CITY, Wis. — Officials with the St. Croix County Sheriff’s Office have released the name of the deputy fatally shot by a suspect near Glenwood, Wisconsin Saturday night.
The department says 29-year-old Deputy Kaitie Leising was killed when she exchanged gunfire with a possibly impaired driver by the side of the road.
The Wisconsin Department of Justice Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI) first confirmed the incident Sunday morning, reporting that a deputy with the St. Croix County Sheriff’s Department was shot while they were responding to a call and later died at the hospital.
Leising was dispatched around 6:15 p.m. Saturday on reports of a potential drunk driver stuck in a ditch near Glenwood, Wisconsin. Upon arrival Deputy Leising located the driver of the vehicle and people in another vehicle that had stopped to help.
Officials say Leising requested that the individual, now identified as 34-year-old Jeremiah Johnson, take field sobriety tests before he returned to his vehicle.
According to officials, Johnson was evasive in responding to Leising’s requests, and after eight minutes of dialogue turned toward the deputy and shot her. After she was shot, the deputy fired her weapon three times. None of the bullets hit Johnson as he fled to a nearby wooded area, according to the DCI.
The incident was captured on body camera, according to a release.
Bystanders who had originally stopped to help the suspect jumped in to perform lifesaving measures on Leising before she was taken to a local hospital.
Additional law enforcement swarmed to the scene and began searching through the woods to find Johnson. Officials said about an hour after Deputy Leising had been shot an officer spotted Johnson, heard a gunshot and saw him fall to the ground. A handgun was found near him.
The DCI said no law enforcement discharged their firearms during the search for Johnson.
There is no further threat to the community, officials said.
The investigation will be led by the DCI with assistance from other law enforcement agencies and will turn its findings over to the St. Croix County District Attorney.
On Sunday, tributes from the community and other law enforcement agencies poured in.
“Our love and condolences go out to the family of Kaitie Leising and all those with whom she served,” said St. Croix County Sheriff Scott Knudson in a released statement. “We, as a law enforcement family, will do everything possible to continue to provide support and comfort to her family. We will miss her infectious smile and personality. She will be missed by all she touched.”
Leising previously worked as a deputy in Pennington County, South Dakota. Her former boss paid tribute to the work she did, and the person she was.
“Kaitlin was an outstanding law enforcement officer, positively impacting many in our county.” Pennington County Sheriff Brian Mueller continued, “Most importantly, she was an outstanding human being.”
The Wisconsin Fraternal Order Police also reacted to the news of Deputy Leising’s death in the line of duty.
Our hearts are heavy as we mourn the loss of another Wisconsin law enforcement officer killed in the line of duty tonight. The fourth this year, the third in less than a month. This has to stop! Rest easy hero, we have the watch from here. #EnoughIsEnough #Hero pic.twitter.com/LCPX6rQT8m
— Wisconsin Fraternal Order of Police (@WIFOP) May 7, 2023
Other departments posted condolences online including the Minneapolis Police Department, which included pictures of the massive police procession that accompanied the deputy’s body as it was transported to the medical examiner’s office in St. Paul early on Sunday morning.
On Sunday afternoon, a law enforcement procession took Deputy Leising’s body from the Ramsey County Medical Examiner’s Office to O’Connell Family Funeral Homes in Baldwin, Wisconsin.
A large crowd gathered on the 11th Street Bridge in Hudson to show their support for the fallen deputy and her fellow officers as the procession passed by.
“Sad, little heartbroken,” said Trina Hilke, who came out to the bridge over I-94 with her 8-year-old son, Micah. “My uncle, his godfather, is a police chief in Illinois and I just imagine any day something like this could happen to him.”
Kayla Raab of Hudson can relate. Her husband, Nate Raab, serves in the military and is a firefighter with the Hudson Fire Department. Sunday, fire trucks lined the bridge with American flags raised in the air.
“Anytime he puts on that uniform, you don’t know. It’s hard.” Kayla said.
The couple brought their kids out for the procession to take in what had happened. “It’s teaching them that this is important and we shouldn’t take this for granted,” Kayla said.
At the St. Croix County Sheriff’s Office people stopped by all day to place flowers and other remembrances on Deputy Leising’s squad car.
“We’re a family,” said Mike Bondarenko, who spent 30 years with the St. Croix County Sheriff’s Office. “Even though I’ve been out of the family for a while, it’s still a family and we all love and support each other.”
As Hilke watched the procession go by with her son, she said did her best to explain why all the squads were there together. “Remember how we talked about the brotherhood? She had a lot of brothers and sisters.”
“Are these all of her siblings?” Micah asked.
“These are all of her police siblings. Her sheriff siblings,” she explained.
This is a developing story and KARE 11 will add more details as they are made available.
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The investigation showed that beyond purchasing the AirTag, Blackey had multiple photos on his iPhone showing private information.
MINNEAPOLIS — A Minneapolis Police Department sergeant is facing several charges after he allegedly stalked and harassed one of his fellow MPD sergeants.
According to the charging documents, the victim learned she was being tracked by an AirTag through a notification on her daughter’s phone on March 18.
The pair searched the car for the tracking device and eventually found it in a vehicle’s wheel well, according to the document.
The AirTag was linked to a phone number the woman recognized as Gordon Leanoard Blackey’s phone, according to prosecutors.
When the woman allegedly confronted Blackey, he said he placed the tracker on her car because he “cared about her,” according to the charging documents. She chose not to pursue further action against Blackey at that time.
Court documents said the woman had previously been in a “brief romantic relationship” with Blackey, about one year before the AirTag was discovered.
On April 30, Blackey allegedly asked the woman out for a drink, which she declined. Later that evening when the woman was out with her friends at a Blaine restaurant, she told investigators she unexpectedly noticed Blackley inside the restaurant.
The incident in Blaine reminded the woman of previous instances when Blackey appeared at events unannounced or appeared to have intimate knowledge about the details of her life, said the charges.
On May 7, the woman reported the incidents to her police department and contacted the Anoka County Sheriff’s Office to request an investigation and possible criminal charges against Blackey.
The investigation showed that beyond purchasing the AirTag, Blackey had multiple photos on his iPhone showing another individual’s private information.
Prosecutors said the images on Blackey’s phone were later confirmed to include information about the victim, her father and one of her coworkers. Those pictures were obtained using a state database accessible to police officers, according to the charging document.
Blackey admitted to tracking the victim’s vehicle on multiple occasions and using his police access to obtain private information about the victim’s father and coworker without a law enforcement purpose.
“I am, of course, very concerned about the charges, but I’ll refrain from commenting further to maintain the integrity of the criminal legal process,” said MPD Chief Brian O’Hara in a statement.
Blackey was charged Wednesday with one count each of harassment and unauthorized use of a tracking device; and two counts of unauthorized acquisition of non-public data.
The police department confirmed Blackey is still a current employee with the city, but they did not clarify in what capacity.
Officials say 79-year-old Charles J. Finck of Elk River was piloting a single-engine Piper Cherokee when it went down near Wayne, Nebraska.
OMAHA, Neb. — Bad weather was reported near two Nebraska farm fields where small planes crashed minutes apart in August, according to preliminary reports from the National Transportation Safety Board.
The two crashes happened on Aug. 26, about 45 miles apart, and within 50 minutes of each other, the Omaha World-Herald reported Thursday. While the NTSB reports don’t yet cite a probable cause in either crash, both reports include witness accounts of low clouds and bad weather.
Joseph Rudloff, 73, of Norfolk, Nebraska, died when his single-engine plane, a two-seat RANS S19, crashed at 8:41 a.m. near the town of Crofton. At 9:31 a.m., a single-engine Piper Cherokee piloted by 79-year-old Charles J. Finck of Elk River, Minnesota, crashed near Wayne, Nebraska.
No one else was aboard either plane beyond the pilots.
Rudloff’s obituary described him as “an avid flier” who died after his plane was engulfed in thick fog. The NTSB report said that 11 minutes before the crash, he called a pilot friend saying he was over Yankton, South Dakota, but unable to land there because of poor weather. Yankton was seeing fog and light rain at the time.
Rudloff’s friend suggested he fly to an airport in Nebraska. Rudloff’s plane hit the ground near Crofton in the far northeastern corner of Nebraska.
That same morning, a landowner near Wayne heard an engine revving on a plane that turned out to be Finck’s. The landowner then heard a pop sound and saw a black plume of smoke coming from his cornfield. He told investigators that clouds were near the ground when he heard the plane fly by. Rain also was falling.
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Stillwater Correctional Facility on lockdown after staff exposed to an unidentified substance
Officials told KARE 11 that “several staff were taken to the hospital out of an abundance of caution.”
BAYPORT, Minn. — The Stillwater Correctional Facility was placed on temporary lockdown Thursday after staff members were exposed to an unidentified substance.
Minnesota Department of Corrections Director of Communications, Shannon Loehrke, told KARE 11 that “several staff were taken to the hospital out of an abundance of caution. The facility is on a temporary lockdown.”
The Minnesota Department of Corrections said an investigation is ongoing and they will provide more details as they become available.
No further information has been released.
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