Hundreds of police among mourners for slain Wisconsin deputy sheriff

Hundreds of law enforcement officers from several states have joined other mourners in paying final respects to Wisconsin sheriff’s deputy fatally shot by a suspected drunken driver during a traffic stop

Hundreds of law enforcement officers from several states joined other mourners in paying final respects Friday to a Wisconsin sheriff’s deputy who was fatally shot by a suspected drunken driver during a traffic stop.

The funeral for St. Croix County Sheriff’s Deputy Kaitlin “Kaitie” R. Leising was held in the gymnasium of Hudson High School while a montage of photos from her life were shown on a large screen overhead. Leising's family, including her wife, Courtney, and their 3-month-old son, Syler, stood to the side of the casket, hugging visitors.

Mourners included a large delegation from the Pennington County, South Dakota, Sheriff’s Office, where Leising worked before moving to St. Croix County last year.

After the funeral, a law enforcement procession was scheduled to take her casket from the high school in Hudson to a church in Baldwin.

Leising, 29, was slain May 6 in Glenwood, about 60 miles (97 kilometers) east of Minneapolis. Leising and the driver she pulled over, Jeremiah Johnson, were discussing field sobriety tests when he drew a handgun and shot her, the Wisconsin Department of Justice has said. She discharged her weapon three times, but none of the rounds hit Johnson before he fled to a nearby wooded area. Leising was pronounced dead at a hospital.

An hour after the shooting, an officer heard a gunshot in the woods. Johnson, 34, killed himself, investigators said.

Leising’s death was the third fatal shooting of an on-duty law enforcement officer in western Wisconsin in a month, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported.