Police agencies and community honor slain Wisconsin officers at funeral

Thousands of law enforcement officers packed the gym and halls of Cameron High School in Wisconsin on Saturday afternoon to pay respects to two local police officers who were shot and killed last weekend during a traffic stop.

Above the stage hung a banner with a blue cross and photographs of the officers killed: Emily Breidenbach, 32, of the Chetek Police Department, and Hunter Scheel, 23, of the Cameron Police Department. With Gov. Tony Evers, Attorney General Josh Kaul and other state officials in attendance, speakers were thankful for the outpouring of support for these two small Wisconsin towns, but said what happened left them reeling.

"Honestly, I am struggling to find any feelings, any moral compass, any leadership strategies to help with this and move forward," Cameron Police Chief Adam Steffen said.

Officials have released few details of the deaths. The officers made the stop in Cameron "based on a warrant and to check welfare of the driver," Glenn Douglas Perry, 50, state officials said in an initial news release.

They encountered an armed subject, gunfire was exchanged and both officers were killed, according to Chetek police. Perry was taken to a nearby hospital and died there.

The police chiefs from the two towns recalled the excitement from both Scheel and Breidenbach when they learned they had been hired.

Breidenbach once stopped by his house unannounced, Chetek Mayor Jeff Martin remembered fondly, specifically to admire a 6,000-piece Lego project that Martin's son completed. The mayor had posted photos of the progress on Facebook.

"Where else, but in a town like our little Chetek, do you have two officers do a house call just to 'Ooh' and 'Ah' over someone's labor of love?" Martin said.

The service worked in personal touches, including mounted deer heads near the front of the service that Scheel had shot. Several officers were stationed with therapy dogs in the school's hallways, a nod to Breidenbach's efforts to add a therapy dog to Chetek police.

The city couldn't afford a therapy dog, so Breidenbach helped raise $18,000 from the community to add one, though only about $6,000 was needed, Chetek Police Chief Ron Ambrozaitis said.

"There was no doubt who the handler was going to be," Ambrozaitis said.

Ambrozaitis said Breidenbach was looking forward to starting a family, and speakers offered condolences to her fiancé.

The gymnasium was dominated by officers in uniforms of various colors, along with community members who either knew the two or remembered seeing them on duty.

Dutch Beckett, of Rice Lake, said he became friends with Breidenbach after meeting her off-duty several years ago. As he waited in the line to pay respects, he described her as "really jolly and kind-hearted."

"She's been a good representation of the community, and she's refreshingly that old-fashioned style of policing where they'll be your friend rather than just looking for trouble-makers," he said. Her father was a former Chetek police chief, Beckett said.

Amanda Scheel said her brother was confident, that he had a contagious smile and a cackle that lit up the room.

"I cried and cried knowing we'll never see that smile again, or have him tell a funny joke again," she said.

Scheel would "give his all" to everything, she said. The large turnout at the funeral "makes my heart ache just a little bit less."

Scheel's cousin, Mark Wagner, described his work ethic as "second-to-none." He was always on time and gave his all, whether it was tasks around the house or while in the military and being stationed in Afghanistan.

Becoming a police officer was "in his bones," Wagner said.