20 years later: Officer gunned down remembered by many

WAUKESHA CO. (WITI) -- It's been 20 years since Waukesha Police Captain James Lutz was gunned down by a father and son crime team. The incident paved the way for change not only here, but across the country.

It was April 28, 1994 at 9:51 a.m. Police chased two bank robbers, guys who were armed with many weapons and holding a hostage.

Paul Bucher was the Waukesha County District Attorney. He frequently still listens to the tape of the police radio that day.

"You can hear the radio traffic, Tom Fletcher was behind him. He was radioing to Jim. They've got a shotgun. They've got a shotgun. It was too late," said Bucher. "By that time, they stopped the Ford Taurus and opened out with dozens of rounds. Jim went down in the front seat holding the shotgun, he must have gotten it out of his trunk. His foot on the break, the car running. Ted Oswald came with a gun, put it to his head and shot him."

"As far as fire power at that time, we were somewhat in the dark ages," said Fletcher. "We were still back having a handgun and a shotgun in the car with you. Where the people we were dealing with, and it happened on a regular basis back then, were using high-powered rifles."

At a memorial service on Monday, many came to pay respects and acknowledge a tragedy that made police department across the nation realize the criminals had much better weapons than police. That started change.

In the end, the Oswalds were caught after crashing into a tree. Each got more than 500 years in prison.