Texas, Wisconsin both mourn an officer killed in the line of duty

CARROLLTON, Texas (WBAY) - Two cities -- one in Texas, the other in Northeast Wisconsin -- are mourning a fallen police officer.

Steve Nothem, who was originally from Kiel and was on the Grand Chute police force, was laid to rest Thursday just outside of Dallas.

Officer Nothem came to the Dallas/Fort Worth area from Grand Chute, a much smaller community with 24,000 residents and 38 police officers.

Eighteen current and former officers of the Grand Chute Police Department, along with law enforcement officers from across America, came to honor someone who was called “a man of great compassion, sensitivity and empathy.”

The procession for Nothem’s funeral ran for miles and people lined the streets to honor him and other fallen officers.

Nothem died on October 18 after his squad car was hit by another vehicle as he responded to a DWI call in Carrollton, Texas.

The 36-year-old was in the U.S. Marine Corps for eight years prior to becoming a police officer. He was stationed at Camp Pendleton, north of San Diego, which is where he met and married his wife.

Nothem was an officer in Grand Chute for four years, and Grand Chute Police Chief Greg Peterson hand-picked him for the police force. Peterson says it was a great choice.

”Nobody I’ve ever worked with has been as committed to service as Steve Nothem has been, and I think that’s what the community has to remember on a day like today,” Chief Peterson said.

Nothem leaves behind a wife, a 13-year-old son, twin 6-year-old boys, and a 1-year-old daughter.

A Give-Send-Go fundraiser was set up for his family, and a separate group generously gave $40,000 to honor the man killed in the line of duty.

As we reported, he was helping another officer on a DWI call. His father told our sister station in Dallas, WFAA, that drunken driving was a personal issue for Nothem because his aunt was killed by a drunken driver on Christmas Eve nearly a decade ago.