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Police: Aid call led to shooting

APPLETON, Wis. (AP) — A call to assist a man thought to be having a medical emergency on a bus escalated into a shooting that ended with the man and an Appleton firefighter dead and two others hurt, authorities said Thursday.

The incident began at around 5:30 p.m. Wednesday as police, firefighters and an ambulance went to help a 47-year-old man arriving in downtown Appleton on a bus from out of the area, police said.

The responders gave medical help to the man, who eventually left the bus and started walking toward a nearby library, whereupon “the incident escalated,” police said. Chief Todd Thomas said the man showed a handgun and exchanged shots with the police officers.

Firefighter Mitch Lundgaard, a 14-year veteran, was killed. A female bystander and an Appleton police officer were also hit. The woman was hospitalized in stable condition, and the officer was treated and released.

The 47-year-old man died at a hospital from his injuries, police said.

A long line of emergency vehicles escorted Lundgaard’s body from the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner’s Office in Milwaukee, where an autopsy was done, back to Appleton on Thursday.

Police on motorcycles led the procession as it made its way north about 120 miles on Interstate 41.

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