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University lends help to those affected by homicide

The University of Wisconsin is reaching out and mourning the loss of a student killed Wednesday in her campus-area home.

UW junior Brittany Zimmermann, 21, was murdered in her house on the 500 block of Doty Street.

UW Dean of Students Lori Berquam called on students to work together to help make campus and the surrounding neighborhood a safe place and to help find Zimmermann’s murderer.

“It’s a bright, sunny day out there, and people are out and about,” Berquam said. “We’re hoping on a call to arms as a community to try to find out what happened.”

Berquam added the university is prepared to help anyone who needs assistance dealing with the tragedy.

“There will be counselors available through the wisc.edu website and the dean of students’ office,” she said.

Susan Riseling, chief of police for the University of Wisconsin Police Department, said the UWPD will work hard to gather information and make it available for students, adding the information available right now is “just so general you’re just not sure how to react.”

Berquam released a statement in the early evening urging students to pay attention to their personal safety. She said students should make use of UW safety resources like SAFEwalk and SAFEride to avoid walking alone at night.

A WiscAlert e-mail sent to students later said while evening classes were continuing as scheduled, UWPD was increasing their patrols for the evening for heightened vigilance.

According to Berquam, Zimmermann was an involved and active student as well as a dedicated employee of the Office of the Registrar.

UW junior Cody Bredendick, who attended high school in Marshfield with Zimmermann, said the situation is tough for all those who knew her.

“I’ve been speaking with some of my friends who knew her better than me,” Bredendick said. “Nobody is really talking about it right now.”

UW graduate student Andrew Burg lives on the corner of the 500 block of Doty Street. He said he never thought a murder would happen so near to where he lives.

“It definitely makes you think twice, you know, walking home from the bars and stuff at night,” Burg said. “[The neighborhood is] known for sketchy people, but not anything like this. It doesn’t hit home until — God, right across the street.”

UW sophomore Laseanza Flowers lives on the neighboring block of Doty Street. She said she comes from a dangerous neighborhood in Milwaukee and thought she did not have to worry about things like this now that she lives in Madison, adding the murder has her worried for her own safety.

“Especially if it was just someone who randomly did it, it makes me scared,” Flowers added.

UW senior Kevin Rynders, who lives across the street from Flowers and very near the crime scene, said he does not feel less safe because he believes violent crime could happen anywhere.

“It’s just crazy,” he added.