Lately it has gotten to the point where I wake up and wonder where the latest assault against cops is going to be today. In police forums I follow, the repeatedly written comments entail “Enough!” and “This has got to stop!” For the sake of reading those angst-driven words, who among us can argue with those sentiments? And that is precisely the point: Assailing and killing cops has seemingly become an ordinary instance visited by extraordinary individuals fueled by circumstances of which cops are undermined and largely unaware, on the daily.
The most recent graphic context involves a crazed male who was on an overpass and throwing rocks “and things” at passing motorists on Interstate 10 in Goodyear, Arizona. Given that I-10 is a federal highway, the jurisdictional responsibility is that of Arizona state troopers employed by the Arizona Department of Public Safety (ADPS). Naturally, any slice of federal or state roadway traversing through municipalities means the local cops can respond and enforce laws as well.
As motorists were moving targets to the rock-thrower, several 9-1-1 calls were received by ADPS communications officers who in turn dispatched troopers to locate/investigate the reported activities. Two Goodyear Police Department officers also responded. In the aggregate, five cops wound up in a pile of uniforms trying to arrest a resistant foe who happened to lift a gun from a holster. It didn’t all turn out well, not for the police.
The most recent media reports provided by ADPS’s director, Colonel Frank Milstead summarized the particulars surrounding the shooting death of rookie Trooper Tyler Edenhofer, a recently-graduated state trooper in his second month of requisite field training being conducted by a senior trooper.
Every law enforcement agency has a contingent of experienced police personnel who are assigned as “field training officers” (FTOs) who take under their wing the latest crop of new cops. Sometimes the paired-up crimefighters comprise a lateral officer (experienced cop who transferred from another police department). Most often, however, it is a brand-new police recruit who just received state-mandated police training and passed their respective state’s law enforcement officer certification examination.
The latter is the case involving Trooper Edenhofer, a 25-year-old man who stepped up full-knowing the perils among the public safety profession. Details in this incident culminated in not one tragedy but several, to include motorists bombarded with objects while driving at high speeds. The greatest tragedy here is that Trooper Edenhofer was sadly killed by a fellow trooper’s firearm wrested away by the sole rock-throwing combatant. An aspiring trooper is dead; another trooper is scarred by his service weapon having been used to murder a colleague; and a field training officer is bearing the insurmountable burden of personal responsibility and lifelong nightmare of what went wrong. At this point, we do not know if the last two points are one and the same.
It is difficult to explain the most grotesque dynamics in this Goodyear-based shooting case. Having been a field training officer before I retired from law enforcement, I can attest that there is a phenomenal personal/professional responsibility. It was one of my greatest honors while also one of my deepest fears: to be entrusted the accountabilities of not only preserving my own life but also doing my darnedest to foster the existence of the trainees assigned to me…while as a duo serving and protecting an untold number of the citizenry, addressing problems.
There is so much to chance in police culture; too many variables are at play at any given moment. Often, the possibilities and probabilities are not necessarily prefigured on anyone’s calculus sheet. Sure, projection is a helpful thing in law enforcement. What-ifs are chronic throughout every police academy; an annoyance yet a good thing once on the table for exploration. But in real-world encounters, unknowns (suspects) introduce aspects with often infantesimal presence culminating in a cop’s millisecond chance to refigure and react accordingly to the other party’s every move. Indeed, it can seem a utopian concept never to materialize optimally. It is no surprise why cops tend to be hypervigilant on and off duty; there is always ample wiggle room for bad guys while police officers must color inside the legal lines. Or else!
Over the past few years, we have seen bills introduced and legislative actions befuddling cops while placing smiles on the faces of politicians who responded to the barks of their constituents. In short, said bills seek to hamper police officials by turning them into sitting ducks by enacting imbecilic statutes whereby a cop is denied proper reaction time and self-defense mechanisms…until it is too late. Basically, all so a citizen’s feelings are not hurt while maniacs are sent a message they forage on like satiated beasts.
I am not suggesting this is the case in the murder of Trooper Edenhofer, but it came to mind. I am burning with curiosity regarding the potential of the involved law enforcement officers having performed perhaps overly conservatively stemming from the culture we have etched for cops: Damned if you do, damned if you don’t. What my learned friend Steve Pomper wrote about in his book “Depolicing America: A Street Cop’s View of the Anti-Police State” may or may not have applications pertaining to the murder of Trooper Edenhofer. We shall see. But I submit it is highly probable. As alluded to at the beginning of this article and comprehensively detailed in Pomper’s work: Depolicing ending in disaster is all too common in America.
The preliminary report after the medical coroner assumed custody of Trooper Edenhofer’s young body is the mere infancy spawning a comprehensive forensic reconstruction, down to the millisecond(s) we referenced earlier. As we heard in the audio/video attached above, Colonel Frank Milstead revealed “the suspect got control of a trooper’s gun and fired at least two shots from the weapon. One of the shots hit [Trooper] Dorris in the shoulder while another shot struck [Trooper] Edenhofer, killing him.” Naturally, no one wants to be that particular trooper. That’s as much of a fact for one trooper as it is the death of another.
Throughout the forensic investigation, details will surface. Concretely, a trooper whose service weapon was somehow lifted and fired by the suspect will be identified in macro fashion. That, too, is a life forever shattered…all by trying to do the right thing while evil claws slithered onto deadly hardware and pulled the trigger.
Despite only preliminary remarks being publicized to the media, gut instincts are signaling not a fault (although it surely will be perceived that way) but an example of the slightest possibility actually happening. Indeed, we are only human. But to the trooper whose gun was used to kill another trooper, there is no living that down. Again, several victims from this one incident.
Like any detective at any crime scene, thorough investigative techniques and strategies include pros/cons and good/bad actions purposing police fact-finding via deep scrutiny. There are many ugly layers in police work, and this is one of them. Assuming any of this was recorded by body-cam or in-car dash-cam, surely it will revert back to the training academy Trooper Edenhofer made the grade as well as many others for the sole reason to dissect and prevent what happened from recurring. Training, training, training is not just a cool-sounding credo. It is a lifestyle, or at least should be for every first responder here and abroad. It all circles back to duty performance and officer safety principles, underscored by trump cards malfeasants bring to the fight.
Respectfully, did they exceed de-escalation techniques and protocols and still have the floor drop out from under them? As mentioned earlier, was ambivalence (depolicing) part-and-parcel to where second-guessing played an insidious role? Did these police warriors experience a Jekyll-and-Hyde type of guy who took advantage of something he knew cops are prohibited from doing? Were communications drowned out by expressway din? A missed signal? This shooting occurred at around 22:00 on July 25, engendering lighting levels which may or may not have impacted the scene in a way conducive for police reaction faculties. Yes, police cars and cops are equipped with a lighting system…but it is not the sun. Was there a tiny hint that this rock-throwing man was somehow gearing for a full-bore attempt at suicide by cop, pushing the blue buttons to effectively achieve that end goal? Of course, if the rock-tossing suspect was somehow suicidal, jumping from the overpass may have been considered. Then again, if he harbored some of those unfortunate en vogue anti-cop sentiments, why not launch his self-destruction in that fashion by creating casualties along the way? At the outset, that says much about the self-restraint of the remaining four cops gazing down at a cop-killer and a dead trooper. Especially, I imagine the starkness in the eyes of the FTO whose partner, essentially, is not returning to the HQ locker room. It was said that the night of his murder was to be Trooper Edenhofer’s last night in training mode.
The enormity of serving as a field training officer reaches milestones and pinnacles as well as downfalls and pitfalls. Like chameleons, FTOs adapt according to dimensions and wear many hats. They can be tough as nails with trainees while also teddy bear-ish around children frightened by cruelties of society. As the training modules proceed, FTOs get to stand back like a proud parent watching how well their indoctrination is exemplified in duty-related tasks performed by police trainees. Conversely, it sometimes derails whereby remediation is the order of the day. No judgments, just reality. We are all different and have varying paces and methods by which we learn new things. We switch gears until the lesson is learned, then we advance to the next. I say that as a generality, and not as any reflection emanating from this shooting incident
However, some lessons come with lasting impacts from which grievous circumstances leading to irreversible, abject loss indelibly scorch the soul. It is not every day in cop culture, but it only takes one instance such as the one we are trying to comprehend. A day in the life of an FTO comes with highs and lows. Strengths and weaknesses of police recruits are honed and buffed to be the best officer they can be. FTOs sign off and prepare for the next academy graduates to come down the pike. Losing one, just one…must be insurmountable. “Not on my watch” are valiant words, until one vile creature’s nasty trigger pull blows the message to smithereens.
The backend to this unfortunate loss is yet to be revealed. No winner exists in this saga, certainly not for whichever trooper’s gun heisted and used to kill a cop.
As mentioned, I’ve served as a field training officer and I can’t fathom the feeling of Trooper Edenhofer’s FTO entering their once-shared mobile office (police cruiser), and all of their combined equipment staring back at him.
Enough!
