Milwaukee’s police chief says an officer on his way home from work was struck and killed by a speeding driver who ran a red light at a Milwaukee intersection.
Milwaukee Police Officer Kou Her. Photo courtesy of the Milwaukee Police Department
Chief Alfonso Morales said Kou Her was a two-year veteran of the department and had just finished his shift when he was killed at 1:35 a.m. Tuesday. He was pronounced dead at Froedtert Hospital.
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At a news conference Tuesday morning, Morales said police arrested a 34-year-old Milwaukee man after witnesses provided the suspect’s direction of travel.
According to a Milwaukee Police Department press release, witnesses said the operator of the vehicle was “traveling at a high rate of speed, disregarded a red light, struck Officer Her’s vehicle and fled the scene on foot.”
“He has four OWI convictions in the state of Wisconsin, his most recent in May of 2017,” Morales said.
A group of officers, detectives and others stood silently and saluted at the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner’s Office when Her’s body arrived from the hospital.
Alderman Cavalier Johnson said Milwaukee police are now grieving the loss of a colleague for the fourth time in just over a year.
“Imagine the pain and the loss that members of this department have felt over that time. (Michael) Michalski, (Matthew) Rittner, (Charles) Irvine and now officer Her,” Johnson said. “It’s sad, it’s tragic and it’s also unnecessary. It’s unnecessary because someone made a choice — a choice to drive through a red light and take the life of a public servant. Another public servant gone.”
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