BARRON COUNTY, Wis. — The loss of two Barron County police officers over the weekend has left community members devastated.

With a broken heart, Brad Bartels visited the makeshift memorial in front of the Cameron Police Department.

He wrote a letter to fallen Cameron police officer and friend, Hunter Scheel.

“A brief letter to share and get a little bit of my feelings off my chest and share that Hunter, cause I’m sure he’s up above, watching and looking over his family,” said Bartels.

Bartels said he met Scheel during their time at the Wisconsin National Guard.

In his letter, he wanted to make sure Hunter knew that he was appreciated.

“Thanking for his service to his county and the many different facets that he chose to serve and the eagerness at which he did,” said Bartels.

The memorial dedicated to the other fallen officer, Chetek police officer Emily Breidenbach, also continued to grow on Monday.

Chetek Mayor Jeff Martin said he had known Breidenbach since she was a child, when her father was the former police chief.

“We had a youth center here in town and from time to time, I’d give her a ride home from the youth center and several years later when she was one of our officers, I did a ride along with her one night and we were joking, now she is the one driving me around. She connected so well [with] kids,” said Martin.

Martin said she also had the ability to connect with many other people from different walks of life.

That connection is why he said this loss hurts so much.

“Cops are hurting because this is family. They are standing down this week. The county is taking over services, patrolling services. It’s very hard. In this small town, they love our cops,” said Martin.

While Bartels looked at the memorial trying to understand why this tragedy happened, he said he feels he knows exactly how Scheel responded to that final call.

“I’m sure there wasn’t a hesitation on his part to do what he had to do to protect the fellow officers who were probably responding shortly behind him. I don’t know the circumstances, but I know that was the kind of person that he was,” said Bartels.