Husband of Slain Wis. Officer Charged in Her Death

Dec. 27, 2012
Police say Benjamin Sebena fatally shot Wauwatosa Officer Jennifer L. Sebena on Christmas Eve.

Benjamin Sebena was charged Thursday with the Christmas Eve shooting death of his wife, Wauwatosa Police Officer Jennifer L. Sebena.

According to a criminal complaint, Benjamin Sebena told police he had been stalking his wife for days and that, after lying in wait for her for hours, shot her early Monday as she emerged from a break at a Wauwatosa Fire Department station on Underwood Ave.

He said he shot her in the back of her head with his own handgun and then shot her several times in the face with her service revolver, according to the complaint.

A decorated Marine, Benjamin Sebena, 30, had been part of the invasion force at the start of the Iraq War in 2003. He returned in the fall of 2004 and was sent to Ramadi.

"We were trained to kill," he says in a YouTube video made for a Christian men's conference

"We were trained death is OK. Wasn't trained to deal with death, but we're definitely trained to kill."

In the video, Sebena claims to have killed a child in self-defense and to have watched 50 friends die in combat. He displays angry ropes of scar tissue that mar his knees, chest and shoulder -- wounds he suffered during a mortar attack that killed a friend in February 2005.

"I've been into the dark places," he says.

Jennifer Sebena, 30, lived with her husband in Menomonee Falls.

She attended the Milwaukee Area Technical College police academy and joined the Wauwatosa Police Department in January 2011. She began as a solo patrol officer in July 2012 and completed probation last month. Her start as a probationary officer was delayed because she was injured during training.

Her funeral services are scheduled for Saturday at Elmbrook Church, 777 S. Barker Road, Brookfield.

The Wauwatosa Peace Officer's has set up a memorial fund in Jennifer Sebena's name.

Donations should be made out to "Officer Jen Sebena Memorial Fund" and can be dropped off at any Focus Credit Union office.

McClatchy-Tribune News Service

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