A newlywed and a Navy veteran of three tours in Iraq were among the five
Dallas police officers killed in a sniper ambush on Thursday night. The
victims were identified on Friday by officials, relatives and the media
as Dallas Police Department officers Senior Cpl. Lorne Ahrens, Officer
Michael Krol, Sgt. Michael J. Smith, Officer Patrick Zamarripa, and
Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) police officer Brent Thompson.
Seven other police officers and two civilians were wounded in the
shooting at the end of a protest over this week’s killing of two black
men by police in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and a suburb of St. Paul,
Minnesota. The Dallas shooter was a U.S. Army reservist who served in
Afghanistan.
Transit Police Officer Brent Thompson, 43, worked for the Dallas Area
Rapid Transit (DART) system since 2009 and was the first officer killed
in the line of duty since the transit system formed a police department
in 1989, DART.
Thompson spent more than four years in Iraq, working for private U.S.
military contractor DynCorp International as a police liaison officer
who supervised Americans training and mentoring the Iraqi police force,
according to his LinkedIn profile.
Thompson got married to a fellow DART officer only 2 weeks ago.
Thompson was also a father and a grandfather from a previous marriage.
| Patrick Zamarripa |
Navy veteran Patrick Zamarripa, 32, served three tours in Iraq and was
killed in the attack, his family told Reuters. He served in the military
reserves as well as working as a Dallas policeman.
Michael Krol, a 40-year-old officer with the Dallas Police Department,
was killed, according to a statement from the Wayne County Sheriff’s
Office in Michigan, where Krol worked as a deputy in the jails from 2003
to 2007.
“We are saddened by the loss of the dedicated officers in Dallas – one
of whom was a former member of this agency – and also the wounding of
the other officers,” Wayne County Sheriff Benny Napoleon said in the
statement.
| Lorne Ahrens |
Senior Corporal Lorne Ahrens, a 14-year veteran with the Dallas police,
was one of those killed, the Dallas Morning News reported.
Ahrens, a 48-year-old California native, was married to a Dallas police
detective and had two children, ages 10 and 8, the newspaper reported.
Michael Smith, 55, also died in the attack. He served in the military as
an Army Ranger before joining the Dallas police in 1989. His
family said he left behind a wife of 17 years and two daughters, ages 9
and 14. May their souls rest in peace.