Colfax family holds vigil for police officers

By LeAnn R. Ralph

COLFAX —  On a chilly November evening, five members of a Colfax family held a vigil in Tower Park to show their support for police officers.

“We decided to do this with everything that’s been going on with the slain officers in Iowa and the one in Rusk County. It’s starting to hit close to home,” said Kristen Gedatus of Colfax.

“We are trying to teach the girls about spreading love and showing support for our officers, knowing that they deal with a lot, in town here and locally. We want to show them we care about what goes on in the community,” she said.

Along with Gedatus the evening of November 3 was Daniel Sims and their three girls, Lucy Mongiat, Sierria Sims and Molly Mongiat.

Rusk County Sheriff’s Deputy Dan Glaze, 33, was shot and killed Saturday, October 29, while responding to a report of a suspicious vehicle in a field.

A suspect in Deputy Glaze’s death was arrested Sunday morning, Doug Nitek of Conrath.

Glaze’s funeral was held Friday, November 4, in an elementary gymnasium in Cameron. According to news reports “at least” 1,000 people attended the funeral.

Then on Wednesday, two police officers were shot and killed overnight while in their patrol vehicles in Des Moines, Iowa.

Urbandale Police Officer Justin Martin, 24, and Des Moines Police Sergeant Anthony Beminio, 38, were killed in separate incidents about 20 minutes apart within two miles of each other.

Forty-six-year-old Scott Michael Greene of Urbandale, Iowa, was taken into custody less than ten hours later after he turned himself in to an employee of the Department of Natural Resources.

Local support  

Gedatus said she and Sims want their young daughters to know that police officers do all they can to keep people safe — and they want Colfax police officers to know that they are deeply appreciated for all they do for the community.

The family lives in Colfax, “right on Main Street,” Gedatus said.

“We had a Colfax officer stop in front of our house on Halloween night, and he had a big group of people, and he was handing out candy,” Sims said.

Sims and Gedatus said they did not know which Colfax police officer had been on duty Halloween night but that he was a “younger gentleman” and that they valued his efforts to connect with trick-or-treaters out and about around Colfax.

“With raising kids in this society, our officers play a big role. The (kids) hear so much in the media,” Gedatus said.

“Even little things. They were trying to get a hold of (Daniel) on a court case where he was a victim, and they called the police chief, and he came to our house to let us know, ‘they are trying to reach you.’ You don’t get that in a big city, where someone will come and knock on your door to tell you that (another agency) is trying to get a hold of you,” Gedatus said.

“That’s big for us,” she said.

Fair share

Colfax has had its fair share of problems, and the police officers “deal with a lot for a small town,” Gedatus said.

“This town, coming into it as an outsider, isn’t as close knit as you might think it would be. We’d like to do something to try to bring it together,” she said, referring to their efforts to hold a vigil to show support for law enforcement.

“Rusk County is so close. And Iowa too. And now there was the case of poisoning a (police) canine in Brooklyn Center,” Gedatus said.

“And then there was that poor gentleman at Stout. We are trying to teach (the girls) about caring for one another. That’s what it’s all about … this is just something we had to do,” Gedatus said.

Hussain Saeed Alnahdi, 24, a junior majoring in business administration at UW-Stout, was assaulted shortly after 2 a.m. Sunday, October 30, near Topper’s Pizza on Main Street in Menomonie.

Police and rescue personnel found Alnahdi lying on the sidewalk, unconscious, and bleeding from his mouth and nose. The young man died the next day. As of press time, authorities were still looking for the assailant, described as a six-foot-tall white male. A $20,000 reward is being offered for information that leads to the conviction of the assailant.

“Our blue”

The candle holder Gedatus had made sat in the middle of a picnic table in Tower Park.

“We back our blue,” was written on the glass.

The girls were proud of the fact that Gedatus had made a candle holder for the police officers.

The children are members of the Colfax Comets, and Gedatus said they planned to do a report for the club during an upcoming meeting.

“My friends in the Cities were the ones who started the vigils in the Cities on the bridge. Just Annie and Joe, standing on the bridge together. A week later, they had close to 300 people on three bridges. They said I should get out there and do it too. Then after the gentleman in Rusk County and the officers in Iowa, I said, ‘this is it, we’re doing it.’ I don’t care if nobody else comes, we’re here, and that’s what counts,” she said.

On the same evening, Steve Russell and Kobi Shaw of In Capable Hands were performing in the Colfax Municipal Building Auditorium.

In fact, you could hear the laughter from the audience while standing in Tower Park.

The girls had very much wanted to see the performance, but Kristen and Daniel believed it was more important to show their support for local police officers.

Kristen said there would be other jugglers and she would find somewhere else to take them, perhaps in Eau Claire over the weekend.

“Right now, this is more important,” she said.

Monday, November 7, an event also was planned at Colfax schools to show support for local police officers and sheriff’s deputies.