On Saturday night, St. Croix County Sheriff's Deputy Kaitie Leising, 29, was shot and killed while investigating a potential drunk driver in a ditch near Glenwood City. According to the Wisconsin Department of Justice, when Leising asked the driver to take a field sobriety test, he became evasive and eventually pulled out a handgun and shot the deputy. Leising fired her weapon three times but did not hit the suspect who fled the scene and was later found in a wooded area with a gunshot wound. No law enforcement officers fired their weapons during the search for the suspect, and a handgun was found near his body.
Leising worked in law enforcement for three years, and she had been with the St. Croix County Sheriff's Office since 2022, having previously served two years at the Pennington County Sheriff's Office in South Dakota. Governor Tony Evers and Sheriff's offices around the state expressed their condolences and announced that a coordinated escort would take place to transport Leising's remains, with law enforcement standing vigil until the services were complete. An investigation into the shooting is ongoing.