GREENDALE — Law enforcement agencies from across southeast Wisconsin gathered at Gazebo Park in downtown Greendale Saturday afternoon for a bittersweet community event that combined K-9 demonstrations with a tribute to fallen officers.
The gathering brought together officers and deputies with their K-9 units to introduce the dogs to the community and showcase the important work they do.
The event also served as a moment of solidarity, as participants took part in a tribute to fallen Milwaukee Police Department Officer Matthew Rittner, who was shot and killed in the line of duty in early 2019.
Watch: Law enforcement agencies honor fallen officers at Greendale K-9 community event
Organizers invited Patty Jerving to the event. She lost her son, Officer Peter Jerving, in 2023. Jerving said she was thrilled to have been invited after learning it was a memorial to Rittner.
"After we were given Peter's things from the police department, on Peter's nightstick was that mourning band that police officers put over their badges, and it was Peter's, and he had kept that band on his nightstick. And all it had was a badge number. I didn't know whose that was, so I had to ask, and they said it was Matthew Rittner," Jerving said.
Jerving brought copies of her new memoir, Death: By Homicide, which chronicles her emotional journey after her son's death.
Storm Team 4 Chief Meteorologist Brian Niznansky was asked to emcee the event.
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