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MILWAUKEE - It's one thing for a police officer to mentally prepare for the moment when gunfire from a suspect comes their way.

Milwaukee Police Sergeant Jeffrey Krantz, who had to shoot at and eventually killed a suspect who fired at him, understands it's a totally different thing to go through the experience, and recover from it.

He talked about what Milwaukee Police officers Bryan Norberg and Graham Kunisch will have to endure after they recover from their physical injuries after being shot while approaching a suspect.

"To get back into this job, the unprovoked nature of an attack like this is difficult to get beyond," said Krantz on 620WTMJ's "Wisconsin's Morning News."

"You just stop somebody to walk up to talk to them, the next thing you know, you're just shot in the face. That's a very difficult thing to move beyond.

"If you're going to a bank robbery and something happens, you're expecting something like that a little bit more, but a random attack like this is difficult to cope with."

Krantz's experience brought enough personal memories that proved tough to cope with.

"I went to stop an individual that I was aware was wanted for a homicide. That individual took off on foot, and then waited around a corner for me. When I came around a corner, he fired some shots and I returned fire."

He then went on desk duty, what Norberg and Kunisch will experience.

"The desk duty usually involves counseling," explained Krantz.

"They usually have the chance to see mental health professionals, and just the peer support they get from people throughout the agency helps them through that.

"What was huge in this incident was the support the officers got from the community. These are two guys that were down on the sidewalk bleeding, unable to get help for themselves, and people from the city stepped up. That's huge for everybody."

Krantz said that he had a hard enough time returning to active duty, but that Kunisch and Norberg will have even more to overcome.

"It was difficult to get put in the same situation that I was in at the time of my shooting," said Krantz. "I didn't get hit by the gunfire, but I was forced to take a life. The next time that I chased somebody, that all rushes back. There's certain stimulus, smells, being put in a familiar situation like that brings that all back.

"The problem with these two is that their situation was walking up and talking to somebody, which you do 100 times a day when you're a police officer. That's something they're going to have to fight through to get back on the street."