FOND DU LAC, WI (WTAQ) – Trevor Casper was the first Wisconsin state trooper in 42-and-a-half years to be killed in the line of duty.
He and a suspected bank robber, identified as Steven Timothy Snyder of Michigan, both died Tuesday during a shootout in Fond du Lac. It ended a crime spree which started with a bank robbery in Wausaukee, the theft of a bank employee’s pickup truck, a car-jacking a short distance away, and the murder of the stolen car’s driver.
Casper found and tailed the stolen car just before the shootout took place. Officials said a Fond du Lac bank was robbed about 500 yards from where the shootout occurred.
Mark Stevens, who was walking out of a nearby grocery store, tells the Fond du Lac Reporter he heard 10 to 15 shots in all.
The state Justice Department continues to investigate, piecing together a timeline. In a statement mid-day Wednesday, DOJ spokesperson Anne E. Schwartz said notifications were made to Trooper Casper’s family in Wisconsin and Snyder’s family in Michigan.
Casper is the first state trooper to be killed on duty since Donald Pederson was shot in August of 1972 by a teen motorist he stopped earlier after a high speed chase.
Also, the incident strikes a nerve on Fond du Lac’s west side — where the shootings happened just over 4 years after city police officer Craig Birkholz was killed while investigating a domestic sexual assault. Fellow officer Ryan Williams survived a bullet wound to the chest, and his K-9 dog partner Grendel was also wounded.
(Story courtesy of Wheeler News Service)
