Trevor Casper, killed in the line of duty, remembered 9 years later

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Sunday marked the nine-year anniversary of when the thin blue line got a lot thinner.

In 2015, Trevor Casper joined a growing list of the men and women law enforcement officers who risked their lives to keep Wisconsin’s streets safer.

On Sunday, March 24, 2024, Wisconsin’s law enforcement community and their supporters gathered at Casper’s grave site in Kiel for a memorial service. Wisconsin District Attorney Association President and Fond du Lac County District Attorney Eric Toney also visited the gravesite Sunday.

“Although it’s been 9 years since Trooper Trevor Casper heroically sacrificed his life for community, it feels like it was yesterday. It’s important that we continue to honor heroes like Trevor. For me, like many others, a small way to honor Trevor’s heroic sacrifice and the loss his family and friends continue to experience is by visiting Trevor’s gravesite in Kiel and paying my respects,” Toney said, during an interview with the Wisconsin Law Journal Tuesday.

Casper’s name has been etched into law enforcement memorials throughout the nation.

“His actions speak volumes about the Casper family, and how Trevor was raised, the friends that Trevor kept, and the training he received through the Wisconsin State Patrol. It was a privilege and honor for our community to have Trooper Trevor Caper serve and protect us. He will forever be in our thoughts and prayers. His heroic sacrifice and his loss should never be forgotten,” said Toney, in a 2015 report from the Fond du Lac County District Attorney’s office.

Everyday when law enforcement officials say goodbye to their families they face violent criminals, witness human tragedy and see the very worst in humanity. When duty calls each time, they never know if they will come home that night to their families, just as Casper didn’t.

“Trooper Trevor Casper made a heroic decision to protect the Fond du Lac community and risk his own life after he suffered a gunshot wound while seated in his squad car,” Toney wrote in the report.

Casper was only 21 years old when and on his first solo patrol with the Wisconsin State Patrol on March 24, 2015. As previously reported by the Wisconsin Law Journal, self-proclaimed neo-Nazi Timothy Snyder was responsible for nine bank robberies in three states. Casper was ambushed by Snyder while Casper was parked in his patrol car off then Highway 41 (now Interstate 41).

“In an instant, Trooper Casper made a selfless decision to say in the fight and protect the community, showing little regard for his own personal safety,” Toney added in the report.

Casper was the first Wisconsin State Trooper who died by gunfire in more than four decades. The last time a Wisconsin trooper was killed by gunfire in the line of duty was 1972, according to The Associated Press.

According to the AP, Snyder was part of a group of skinheads who attacked Black and Hispanic people in Fond du Lac nearly 20 years ago. He had several “White Power” tattoos and was carrying several dozen printed cards in his coat promoting a neo-Nazi organization when he was arrested in April 1996.

Records obtained by the Wisconsin Law Journal from the Wisconsin Department of Justice Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI) revealed that on March 24, 2015, DCI agents responded to the report of an armed bank robbery and related homicide in the Wausaukee area of Marinette County, Wisconsin. DCI obtained information about Snyder who was the suspect.

According to DCI, Wisconsin State Patrol personnel, including Casper, were alerted about the Marinette County armed robbery and homicide and that the suspect and vehicle information. Casper was located at a highway crossover on Highway 41 near County Road OO in Fond du Lac County when he observed the suspect vehicle being driven southbound on Highway 41 and radioed that information and followed the suspect’s vehicle from a distance.

Law enforcement officers from Fond du Lac Police Department and Fond du Lac Sheriff’s Department also arrived at the scene within seconds and assisted, according to DCI, who noted other Troopers provided first aid to Casper at the scene and then loaded him into Trooper Hyer’s squad car to transport him to a medical facility. The squad car met up with an ambulance which was en route to the Fond du Lac Airport to meet with a medical helicopter. While at the ambulance, there were 4-5 paramedics working on Casper in the ambulance. Eventually one of the EMS workers reported Casper did not survive.

Search warrants for Snyder’s vehicle, cellular telephones and computer and e-mail accounts were executed. Searches were also conducted on WSP vehicles, firearms and Snyder’s residence in Michigan, according to DCI.

DCI reports noted the crime scene included approximately a two-block area of North Berger Parkway running east of a Pick N Save store (760 W. Johnson St.), the Courtyard Apartment building (136 North Berger Parkway), the property east of the apartment building and two vehicles.

The scene was also searched for potential evidence, sketched and measured. Members of the Wisconsin State Patrol Technical Reconstruction Unit (accompanied by DCI personnel) took measurements for the presentation of scaled diagrams. A total of nine (9) fired 5.7 X 28 mm and twelve (12) fired 40 caliber cartridge casings were recovered.

Timeline

The Fond du Lac County District Attorney’s Office report provided a timeline of events:

This story has been updated.