MILWAUKEE - Sheriff David Clarke wants a deputy suspended for abandoning his airport post to pick up a dead deer almost 25 miles away.

Clarke is urging the Personnel Review Board to put Sgt. Phil Wentzel on unpaid leave for 25 days, equivalent to five work weeks.

Early in the morning on January 12, several 911 callers reported an injured buck near 107th & Bradley Road.

"I just didn't want to see him suffering," said Lori Vinyard, who called police on her way to work.

According to an Internal Affairs report, Wentzel was on duty at the airport when a dispatcher called the patrol office and asked "anyone looking for venison?"

Wentzel asked a squad car to stay with the deer until he could drive to the northwest side.

TSA agents stopped Wentzel before he left, asking him to investigate a suspicious traveler. The man in question was taking pictures of parking structures, the sheriff's office, ticketing areas and an access gate.

TSA Assistant Federal Security Director filed a formal complaint, claiming Wentzel was "unconcerned" and "blew off" the suspicious person.

Wentzel left the airport and went to the Patrol Division Substation. Investigators say Sgt. Mark Ewert provided Wentzel with emergency blankets for wrapping and transporting the carcass. Wentzel picked up the buck in an unmarked Ford Expedition and took it to his Franklin home.

"In hindsight, it was dumb," Wentzel told investigators. "There were a number of bad decisions that I made."

The Personnel Review Board is expected to make a decision on Wentzel's suspension at its July 27 meeting. Until that hearing, he remains on paid active duty.

Clarke suspended Ewert for 10 days. Ewert is scheduled to take that unpaid time off at the end of the month.

As for the suspicious traveler, he was allowed to board his flight to Baltimore. Airport police in Maryland questioned the 40-year-old man, found no evidence of criminal activity and released him.