Former Harrisburg police chief received life in prison for 2009 murder of girlfriend Written By: Erik Kaufman | ×
Russell Bertram, 64, of Sioux Falls, right, is escorted in January from the Tripp County Courthouse by Gregory County Deputy Chelsea Biehl following an evidentiary hearing. (Forum News Service file photo)
GREGORY, S.D. The 911 call came in on Oct. 24, 2009.
“911, what is your emergency?” the operator asked.
“Yes, my, ah, friend just got accidentally shot in the, I’m on the way to the Gregory Hospital, call them right away,” the caller said, according to a transcript of the 911 call.
The man on the other end of the line was Russell Bertram, a Sioux Falls resident and a former police chief of the Harrisburg Police Department. The person who had been shot was his girlfriend, Leonila Stickney, of Bridgewater, then-age 26.
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