Marathon County Sheriff’s Department Recognizes Three with the Life Saving Award for October 15th Incident

Monday, January 26th, 2026 -- 9:00 AM

On October 15, Marathon County Sheriff’s Deputy Zachary Ruesch, Deputy Morgan Day, and Deputy Cody Hornik demonstrated extraordinary courage and teamwork during a critical incident involving an armed, suicidal individual.

Deputy Ruesch had spent hours negotiating with the individual to de-escalate the situation and bring the situation to a peaceful resolution. While Deputy Ruesch was negotiating with the individual, other deputies were working to locate him as the family did not know his whereabouts.

Ultimately, Deputy Day located the subject and worked to calm him during this tense encounter. During negotiations, the individual escalated, exiting a vehicle and began causing self-harm by stabbing himself multiple times with a knife.

Deputy Hornik was able to successfully disarm the individual, and deputies began to immediately render aid. The individual inflicted multiple stab wounds to his chest and a severe arterial wound in his lower extremities, all three deputies acted immediately to save his life.

Deputies applied chest seals and packed the arterial wound, controlling what was life-threatening bleeding, until EMS arrived. Medical professionals confirmed that these injuries would have been fatal without the deputies’ quick and decisive actions.

The Department is proud to recognize Deputies Ruesch, Day and Hornik, with the Marathon County Sheriff’s Office Life Saving Award. They would also like to express our appreciation to the Wittenberg Area Ambulance Service and the South Area Fire & Emergency Response - SAFER District for their assistance on this call.

Their response contributed to a successful outcome.

Feel free to contact us with questions and/or comments.