Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers this week signed into law a bill naming a stretch of highway in his state after a Chadron native killed while serving as a sheriff’s deputy in Wisconsin almost a year ago.
29-year old Kaitie Stevens Leising was fatally shot during a drunk driving stop May 6, 2023, by a driver who later took his own life.
That stretch of Wisconsin State Trunk Hwy 128 from State Trunk Hwy 64 to Interstate 94 is now the Deputy Kaitie Leising Memorial Highway.
Leising, a 2012 graduate of Chadron High School who still has family in Chadron, had been with the St Croix County Sheriff’s Office less than a year after 2 years with the Pennington County Sheriff’s Office in South Dakota.
In designating the highway in her honor, Governor Evers said “This memorial will serve as a testament to Deputy Leising’s life and legacy and honor those we’ve lost in the line of duty.”
Evers said “Deputy Leising exemplified the very best of our law enforcement community here in Wisconsin, showing an unwavering commitment to the well-being and safety of those she served.”
St Croix County Sheriff Scott Knudson, Leising’s past co-workers, and her teachers and staff at Chadron High School all described her as having, in Sheriff Knudson’s words, an “infectious smile and personality (that) will be missed by all she touched.”
The official report on Leising’s death said that as she was talking about field sobriety tests with the driver she’d stopped, he pulled a gun and fatally shot her.
She returned fire, but all 3 shots missed as the man fled into nearby woods where he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound about an hour later.