A fallen firefighter was praised as a hero Thursday night during a vigil at a church blocks from where he was shot responding to a medical call.
"We know it can happen in this profession, when we put on a badge," Appleton Police Chief Todd L. Thomas said during the vigil at CORE Church.
Mitchell F. Lundgaard, a 14-year veteran of the Appleton Fire Department, was shot after paramedics responded to the downtown transit center at about 5:30 p.m. Wednesday for a medical emergency.
Thomas said firefighters and law enforcement officers talked about how to move forward, but there is no definite answer.
"Love will always defeat evil," he told the gathering of about 100, including police officers and firefighters from around the Fox Valley. The Rev. Mike Novotny of CORE said the goal of the vigil was to provide a sense of community to move forward in the wake of the shooting and death of Lundgaard.