Update: 6:11 p.m.
APPLETON, Wis. (AP) — Residents of a Wisconsin city are saying goodbye to a firefighter killed in the line of duty.
A procession honoring Mitch Lundgaard wound through Appleton on Monday, starting at a funeral home and ending at Appleton Alliance Church, where a visitation was planned. Lundgaard will be taken back to the funeral home following the 6 p.m. service, which is not open to the public.
Lundgaard’s family released a statement saying the “outpouring of support” from the community in the past week “has been astonishing to us.”
The husband and father of three was killed in the crossfire of a gunfight between police and a Wausau man who also died in the exchange of gunfire.
Original story
APPLETON, Wis. (AP) – Appleton’s fire chief is encouraging citizens to line a funeral procession route to honor firefighter Mitch Lundgaard who was killed in the line of duty last week.
The processional begins at 1 p.m. Monday followed by a public visitation at Appleton Alliance Church from 3 to 5:30 p.m. Chief Jeremy Hansen says the processional route will run from the Brettschneider-Trettin-Nickel Funeral Chapel to the church. Lundgaard will be taken back to the funeral home following the 6 p.m. service, which is not open to the general public.
The husband and father of three was killed in the crossfire of a gunfight between police and a Wausau man who also died in the exchange of gunfire. Lundgaard was the first Appleton firefighter in 86 years to die in the line of duty.