Wisconsin state trooper, bank robbery suspect die in shootout

By Brendan O'Brien MILWAUKEE (Reuters) - A recently graduated Wisconsin State Patrol officer and a suspect in two bank robberies were killed in an exchange of gunfire outside a store in Fond du Lac, authorities said on Wednesday. Trooper Trevor Casper was shot on Tuesday night after pursuing a vehicle matching the description of one driven by the suspect in a bank robbery committed in Marinette County earlier that day, authorities said. Casper, who had completed training in December, and the suspect, Steven Timothy Snyder of Michigan, both suffered fatal wounds in the shootout behind a store in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, said the Wisconsin Department of Justice, which is leading the investigation. Several crimes were committed in Marinette County and Fond du Lac on Tuesday and investigators were trying to determine whether they might be related, the state justice department said. It is believed the suspect robbed a bank in Wausaukee, a Marinette County village near Wisconsin's northeast border with Michigan, and fled in a bank employee's vehicle, said Marinette County Sheriff Jerry Sauve in a statement. Less than an hour later, a man was found dead near a pick-up truck with the motor still running on the side of a road near Wausaukee, with the bank employee's vehicle nearby, leading investigators to believe the suspect may have shot the man and fled, Sauve said. Sauve identified the victim as Thomas Christ, 59, of Wausaukee. The encounter between Snyder and Christ occurred near his property, he said. The FBI, state justice department agents and sheriff's officers later broadcast the vehicle information to law enforcement, Sauve said. Casper was responding to another report of a bank robbery in Fond du Lac, more than 110 miles south of Marinette County, when he saw the vehicle and suspect, said Fond du Lac Police Chief William Lamb. No other suspects are being sought, he said. "Trooper Trevor Casper was killed while bravely serving his community and doing his duty to keep our citizens safe," Governor Scott Walker said in a statement. Autopsies on both men are expected to be completed on Wednesday, state authorities said. (Reporting by Brendan O'Brien in Milwaukee; editing by W Simon and Gunna Dickson)