Damakant Jayshi
Three Wausau Police officers were honored Monday with Life Saving Awards for preventing attempted suicides in the city.
Officers Aaron Karlen, Claire Aschenbrenner, and Josiah Kaetterhenry were given the awards by Chief Benjamin Bliven at a regular meeting of the Wausau Police and Fire Commission on Monday
Bliven shared details of the incidents in which the officers saved residents contemplating suicide, saying the officers played an instrumental role in saving their lives. The accounts are also posted on the WPD’s Facebook page.
On July 21, officers Aschenbrenner and Karlen saved a woman by preventing her from jumping off the Scott Street Bridge. The woman later admitted that “she was suicidal, hopeless and intended to jump off the bridge to kill herself,” Bliven said. The two police officers took her to North Central Health Care for treatment.
Then on April 30, a 15-year-old boy confided in another person that he planned to end his life. With additional information from the boy’s mother and live feeds from video surveillance cameras downtown, the officers discovered the teen on the ledge of the top floor of the Jefferson Street Ramp, near the Marathon County Public Library.
Officer Kaetterhenry pulled the boy off the ledge and away from the edge of the ramp. In addition to Kaetterhenry police officers Andrew Palmini, Jason Pacey, Robert Pfaff, John Shear, Claire Aschenbrenner and Seth Cate along with lieutenants Brent Olson and Jennifer Holz were involved in coordinating the rescue operation. Initially, the teen attempted to break free from the officers. Later, he told the officers that he had gone to the ramp to die.
He too was taken to the North Central Health Care for evaluation and treatment.
Over the past six years the annual awards were typically handed out in March during a banquet, but that changed this year after officers said they preferred a peer-led awards assessment. An awards committee was formed, whose members suggested that awards be given on a timely basis, as they occur.
“We have got outstanding police officers in our department,” Bliven told the PFC members, adding that often officers respond to people who may be having their worst day of their life.
If you or someone you know is in crisis, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 or text HOME to the Crisis Text Line at 741741. Chat online at 988lifeline.org.
