Two families stay close after fateful day Becky Bartley, 23, poses in front of a sculpture dedicated to Mequon Police Chief Thomas E. Buntrock in front of the Mequon Police Department Friday, May 23, 2003, in Mequon, Wis. (AP Photo/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Benny Sieu) Associated Press MILWAUKEE (AP) - The Bartleys and the family of Mequon Police Chief Tom Buntrock didn't know each other before the night of Dec. 2, 1979, but today they are as close as blood relatives. That night, Buntrock gave his life to save two-month-old Becky Bartley from an armed kidnapper. Becky, now 23, was too young to remember the night when Buntrock persuaded a disturbed 19-year-old to hold him hostage instead of her. But she is all too aware of Buntrock's sacrifice. "I have always tried to do something good with my life," said Becky, who just finished her second year at the Medical College of Wisconsin and plans to get married next year. "But that is even more of a reason _ that he gave up his life." On that Sunday, her father, Doug Bartley, was in the shower and her mother, Regina Schuller, was elsewhere in the house when Anthony Johnson knocked at the door of the family's home in the Milwaukee suburb of Mequon. Johnson, who had been convicted of sexual assault and was wanted on charges of stealing a car and fleeing police, entered and pulled out a gun. Earlier that day, he had robbed a gas station and fled in a car. He had bailed out near Interstate 43, fired three shots at a sheriff's deputy and then hid in a hayfield before approaching the Bartley house. He then forced the family _ Doug, Regina holding Becky, and the Bartleys' two other kids _ into the living room. Pointing the gun at them, he demanded a ride to Michigan's Upper Peninsula. "I would rather have my brains blown out," Regina recalls him saying, "than spend another day in jail." "That was ironic because that is what happened," she said. Johnson wanted Doug to drive, but he also wanted Becky in the car. Buntrock, 43, wasn't working that night. The police chief and father of four boys was at home, where his wife, Kathy, was making dinner. The phone rang, and he was soon gone. Police quickly cut off Doug's car _ with Johnson in the back seat holding Becky _ and surrounded them in a driveway. News stories at the time say Johnson got out of the car and pointed the gun at Becky, screaming, "I'll kill the baby. I'll kill the baby right now!" "Let's just cool it," Buntrock replied. "Nobody's going to do anything. No one's going to shoot." Several hours after the standoff began, Buntrock persuaded Johnson to hand over Becky _ and he did it by offering to take the infant's place. The Rev. Ellsworth Freyer, the police department's chaplain, was involved in the negotiations. "He was the kind of guy who lived gallantly, and he died that way. The hardest thing for me was when he asked me to take his gun," he said. Shortly after, as Johnson's eyes were momentarily diverted, Doug opened the car door and rolled out. Johnson and Buntrock then got into the chief's unmarked squad, with the chief in the driver's seat. He already had told other officers not to allow them to leave the area. Shortly after 8 p.m., the unmarked squad was stopped at a roadblock. A Mequon lieutenant, seeing a clear shot, fired at Johnson through the rear window of the squad, but the shot only stunned him. Buntrock moved toward the back seat. Both his and Johnson's hands were on Johnson's pistol when a bullet from the pistol discharged, hitting Johnson in the head and killing him. Seconds later, a Mequon patrolman _ mistaking Buntrock for Johnson _ shot and killed the chief, then-Ozaukee County District Attorney James LaPointe later concluded. Soon after the tragedy, the Bartleys moved out East but returned to Mequon a few years later. The family became close with the chief's widow. "I view Kathy as one of those few friends you find in your life and you could ask her anything, and she would do it," Regina said. Regina and Kathy often go out to dinner. Regina and Becky spend every Christmas Eve at Kathy's house. They also visit her Dec. 2, bringing flowers and a prayer card. "It has been a long time now, and we know that other people forget," said Kathy, who has remarried and now goes by Kathy Hume. "But we don't." Kathy said watching Becky makes her feel good. "It could have been so different," Kathy said. "I am happy that she survived and is doing a wonderful job with her life."