“Kaitlin was an outstanding law enforcement officer, positively impacting many in our county.” Pennington County Sheriff Brian Mueller wrote in a news release. “Most importantly, she was an outstanding human being.”
According to the Wisconsin Department of Justice, Jeremiah D. Johnson, 34, was identified as the convicted rapist charged with killing St. Croix County Sheriff’s Deputy Kaitie Leising in Wisconsin on May 6, 2023.
Johnson, a convicted rapist and kidnapper from Minnesota, is believed to have shot himself in the head before passing away. On July 5, 2015, following Fourth of July celebrations in Saint Paul, Minnesota, Johnson abducted and sexually assaulted an inebriated woman off the street. According to Minnesota court documents, he was sentenced to 6 years and 5 months in prison in November 2015 after entering a guilty plea to kidnapping and third-degree criminal sexual conduct.
Additionally, he had to register “as a predatory sexual offender for 10 years,” per court documents. Johnson had been under community supervision since his release from jail on October 28, 2019, according to the Minnesota Bureau of Apprehension. Scott County Community Corrections was in charge of his supervision, which was scheduled to end on October 28, 2029.
The person who shot and murdered Leising has been identified by a law enforcement official; in addition, Johnson’s friends and family have written extensively about his passing on Facebook, with his aunt calling it a “sudden, unsuspected death” in a post.
Leising is 29, according to the DOJ. Tributes paid to the deceased officer were positive.
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