MENASHA, WI (WTAQ) – At the time, officials called it the “end of innocence”.
One-year ago Tuesday a gunman opened fire on the Trestle Trail Bridge in Menasha, killing 3 people before he committed suicide.
Menasha Police Officer Aaron Zemlock says he often thinks back to that day.
“Pretty much daily, there’s always some reminder,” Zemlock says about the random shooting which took place around 7:30 p.m. “It might just be driving past the trail head, or seeing the trestle from Lake Street as I’m on my way home.”
Sergio Valencia del Toro killed 31-year-old Adam Bentdahl, 11-year-old Olivia Stoffel and her father 33-year-old Jonathan Stoffel. 32-year-old Erin Stoffel survived after being shot multiple times.
“It was a horrible event, we couldn’t be prouder of those that responded from all areas, from the emergency responders, paramedics, fire, doctors and the police,” Zemlock says. “Then, the strength of the families involved, the Bentdahl and Stoffel families, was pretty inspiring to meet those people and they’re the real heroes of the situation.”
Zemlock says that while the agency had trained for an active shooter, you never know where it’ll happen and the circumstances leading up to it. That’s the biggest lesson the department has learned in the 12 months since.
“We had a real difficult time getting some of the information on military records, prior mental health records and that has definitely been brought to the forefront,” said Zemlock. “If we have this kind of incident, we do now have a road map for how to obtain those difficult pieces of information.”
Moving forward, security procedures on the Trestle Trail Bridge and Fritse Park is not going to change just because of this one incident.
“We do generally patrol the bridge looking for all kinds of things, nuisance behaviors and what not,” Zemlock says. “We don’t plan on changing anything. It really, truly was a random act of violence and it was unfortunate it happened at that location. It could’ve happened anywhere.”
