Red Lake police officer Jesse Branch remembered as public servant, cowboy, lover of pranks

RED LAKE, MINN. – Chase Gallinger said that whenever he heard Jesse Branch’s name called over dispatch radio, a deep sense of ease washed over him.

“I’d just get relieved that he was there because I trusted him,” Gallinger said of his best friend and patrol partner at the Red Lake Police Department.

Branch, 35, died Nov. 27 after colliding with another vehicle while responding to a call for service. He dedicated 17 years to public safety in Red Lake Nation, first as a corrections officer at 18 and then as an officer and sergeant. The crash also killed Red Lake band member Alan Lussier Jr. Circumstances of the crash have not been released by the FBI.

“Even when enforcing law, he always saw the potential in people, and he was a very fair cop,” Gallinger said. “He always looked out for what was best for everybody. He was honest, trustworthy, the kind of cop that would give the shirt off his back.”

At Branch’s funeral Saturday on the Red Lake Nation College campus, he was remembered as a cowboy, prankster and selfless colleague who would fill a shift for a fellow officer, dispatcher or corrections officer at a moment’s notice.

Hundreds of first responders came to pay their respects to Branch from across Minnesota and as far away as the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation in northwestern North Dakota.

“Today we mourn the loss of a colleague, a protector and a brother. We also celebrate a life lived with purpose, a life spent answering the call to serve and safeguard others,” said Red Lake Public Safety Director Kendall Kingbird Sr.

Branch was the third officer to die on the Red Lake reservation in five years. Shannon Lee “Opie” Barron, 48, a conservation officer suffered a medical emergency shortly after responding to a call in 2019, and Officer Ryan Bialke, 37, was shot while making a welfare check in 2021.

“Our police department just keeps struggling, but we always come back,” said Capt. Dana Lyons Jr.

Crystal Deputy Police Chief Brian Hubbard, who is president of the Minnesota Law Enforcement Memorial Association, said the organization is tragically familiar with hosting funerals in Red Lake. He said this is the fifth officer funeral in Minnesota this year.

“Every officer that puts on this uniform comes to work knowing that they may be called to make the ultimate sacrifice. And it doesn’t much matter how you die,” Hubbard said. “The tragedy to this family and to this agency and this community is the same, and so we honor them the same way because it’s the same sacrifice.”

Lyons said Branch “was one of the guys I could always call up if I knew there was a shift that needed to be covered. ... Even in dispatch, he would cover dispatch for those girls, anywhere we needed the guy. He was there for search and rescues, search and recoveries, anything related to Red Lake.”

Branch’s girlfriend, Lanelle Thompson, used to work in dispatch. That’s where they met. She has two girls who Branch treated as his own in the nearly two years they dated. According to one friend, Branch said that if he had a daughter he would name her Olive Branch.

Branch was born in Ashland, Wis., and grew up in Bemidji where he developed a passion for rodeos. Beltrami County Sheriff Jason Riggs said he knew Branch when he was just 15 years old and already eager to wear the badge with honor.

“At that age, you would think that people would be a little bit more open to what they wanted to do. But Jesse, I think he had a pretty good idea,” Riggs said.

“He was one of those kind of kids that was just involved in a lot of different stuff — one of which being the rodeo — and wanting to be a part of this [law enforcement] community for so long, and then he finally got his dream to come true.”

Branch joined the sheriff’s posse, following in the footsteps and gallops of his father, Leonard Branch, and served North Country First Responders in Bemidji. The law enforcement agencies of Red Lake, Bemidji and Beltrami County work closely together, Riggs said, so a loss like this impacts many first responders.

“Officer Branch was a member of our community,” Riggs said. “He was truly a servant with a servant’s heart, and served in the capacity of so many things, you know, someone who volunteers that kind of time for their community, for the betterment of public safety, is truly a servant.”

Kingbird said he grew up in Red Lake but that Branch “knew more people here than I did.” It was reflected in the crowd that gathered in the campus humanities building and the long procession that traveled from Red Lake to Bemidji for Branch’s burial at Holy Cross Cemetery.

“It’s a tragic day for law enforcement,” said Minnesota Public Safety Commissioner Bob Jacobson. “Anytime we lose somebody who serves on public safety, police officers, firefighters, we want to be present to honor the sacrifice that they made. Be here for their fellow law enforcement officers, for their families that are grieving. It just takes a toll on the whole community, and we want to be here to honor them.”

Gallinger said Branch was more than a colleague, who he described as goofy with a sense of humor and penchant for pulling pranks in the office. They spent holidays together and Branch went with Gallinger to his son’s first Vikings game. The officers were also honored last year at a Twins game for their work on DWI enforcement.

Branch was one of the first people whom Gallinger met when he applied to work at the detention center after moving from Casper, Wyo., in 2013. Branch encouraged Gallinger to become a police officer.

“He played a big part of where I’m at today as a law enforcement officer,” he said. “It’s been rough. I think about him constantly, all the time.”