The five police officers killed by a sniper Thursday night in downtown Dallas had varying personalities and styles but shared a passion for their profession.
Dallas Police Officers Patrick Zamarripa, Senior Corporal Lorne Ahrens, Michael Krol, Sergeant Michael Smith and Dallas Area Rapid Transit Police Officer Brent Thompson were shot and killed by 25-year-old Micah Xavier Johnson, an Army veteran who officials said had a hatred of white people and sought to kill law enforcement officers.
Below are the stories of the officers who sacrificed their lives to save others:
Dallas Police Officer Michael Krol
By Valerie Wigglesworth
Being one of the blue was his dream: “He was all in, he was all in.”
Michael Krol, 40, an eight-year veteran of the Dallas Police Department, was among those killed Thursday night in downtown Dallas. Police in Wixmon, Mich., showed up at his sister’s door at about 2:30 a.m. Friday with word of his death.
His extended family gathered Friday to mourn at his mother’s home in Redford, a Detroit suburb. Susan Ehlke was too upset to talk. Instead, she issued a handwritten statement.
“He knew the danger of the job, but he never shied away from his duty as a police officer,” she wrote. “He was a great caring person and wanted to help people. A wonderful son, brother, uncle, nephew and friend."
Krol had always wanted to be a police officer, but he had to work for it, said his brother-in-law, Brian Schoenbaechler of Atlanta.
Krol graduated from Massachusetts’ East Longmeadow High School, where he played basketball and football.
At nearly 6-foot-4, Krol towered over most people. But Schoenbaechler called him “a big gentle giant who had a heart for serving others.”
His family moved back to Michigan, where he started working temporary security at a hospital. In 2003 he was hired as a jailer at the Wayne County Sheriff’s Office in Detroit.
Four years later, he itched to follow his dream. Police departments in the Detroit area weren’t hiring, but Dallas was. So he said goodbye to his family and headed south.
The Dallas department hired Krol in September 2007. Seven months later, his parents, two sisters and brother all traveled to Dallas to share their pride in Krol’s graduation from the police academy.
A Detroit Pistons fan, Krol loved sports. His brother-in-law also described him as a quiet guy.
“He didn’t say much, but when he did, it was something funny,” Schoenbaechler said.
Last November, Krol returned home with his girlfriend to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday with his extended family. They took in the Detroit Turkey Trot and parade, then enjoyed lots of good food and good conversation, Schoenbaechler said.
No one knew it would be the last time they would see Krol.
He loved to tell stories about all the crazy things he saw on the job. But make no mistake, “he was very proud to be a police officer,” Schoenbaechler said.
Krol’s uncle Jim Ehlke told a media outlet in Michigan that being a police officer was always Krol’s dream.
“He got into law enforcement and worked really hard to be a police officer. He spent some time at the correctional facility. It wasn’t quite what he was looking for, so he worked pretty hard to find a job and got one in Dallas,” Ehlke said. “He was all in, he was all in.”
Ehlke said his nephew’s passion was helping people.
“He wanted to make things right, was really committed,” Ehlke said. “That was probably the most frustrating thing for him — he couldn’t solve it all.”
Dallas Police Cpl. Lorne Ahrens
By Julieta Chiquillo and Tristan Hallman
Senior Cpl. Lorne Ahrens’ children had already gone to bed Thursday night when the Dallas police officer was wheeled into the emergency room at Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas.
On Friday morning, the kids woke up to the news that their father was dead.
Medical staff couldn’t save Ahrens from the bullets that tore into his liver, said Karen Buckingham, his mother-in-law.
“It’s just beyond belief,” Buckingham said.
Ahrens had been with the Dallas Police Department since January 2002, according to department records.
"He was always one of the happy ones, with a smile on his face," said a fellow officer who often saw him around the department’s Central station.
Steven Stribley, a Dallas patrol officer and a state Fraternal Order of Police vice president, said Ahrens was “an incredible loving and devoted husband and father. Greatly respected veteran of the department."
The 48-year-old officer was married to Detective Katrina Ahrens from the crimes against persons division. The couple lived in Burleson with their two children: 10-year-old Sorcha and 8-year-old Magnus.
Laszlo Rakovszky, a southwest patrol officer, said Lorne Ahrens was a true cop, but also a “a big teddy bear.”
“He was a jokester,” Rakovszky said. “He did what he needed to do, but he also had fun.”
Rakovszky and Ahrens bonded over their California heritage. “He was my friend,” he said. “He was my brother.”
It wasn’t unusual for Ahrens to reach out to the community he served, said fellow officer Jorge Barrientos, who was wounded in Thursday’s violence.
The day before his death, he bought dinner for a homeless man and his dog, a kindness he frequently extended, Barrientos said. Ahrens also encouraged other officers to reach out to the man and say hello when they passed.
Former Dallas officer Anthony Quintanilla met Ahrens when he transferred to the robbery unit.
At first, Quintanilla, who served in the Marines, was intimidated by Ahrens' bulky frame. But Quintanilla said Ahrens took him under his wing and helped show him the ropes.
Ahrens, who worked near his wife, often appeared disorganized and kept a messy desk, Quintanilla said. But he always knew where he put every piece of paperwork on his cases and was a team player.
Quintanilla said Ahrens always put his kids first.
He was stunned to hear that a guy as big and friendly as Ahrens had been killed.
"I just didn't think this man could go down like that," he said.
With a shaved head and a frame exceeding 6 feet tall, Ahrens boasted the physique of a football player.
But when it came to his kids, he’d crouch to their level. He took them fishing and played with them in the park.
“He enjoyed it as much as they did,” Buckingham said.
The officer volunteered to go down to his children’s school when teachers needed someone to come talk to their classes, Buckingham said. He became so popular that the school asked him to come back several times, she said.
Ahrens always wore his uniform when he visited the school so the kids could see him in blue.
After keeping vigil at the hospital all night, Katrina Ahrens came home. She told Sorcha and Magnus that their father died doing what he was supposed to: trying to help people.
“They don’t get it yet,” Buckingham said. “They don’t know what to do quite yet.”
Staff writers Naomi Martin and Eva-Marie Ayala contributed to this report.
Dallas Police Sgt. Michael Smith
By David Tarrant and Eva-Marie Ayala
His fellow officers gave him an award for being a “Cops’ Cop.”
A family friend described him as “salt of the earth.”
A veteran officer, Sgt. Michael Smith was known as conscientious and professional, an officer who cared so deeply that he would even dip into his own pocket to pay for his training if needed.
He consistently received outstanding performance awards, including a “Cops’ Cop” award from the Dallas Police Association.
That training came in handy a few years ago when he and a partner were working near downtown Dallas, according to a 2009 write-up in the DPA magazine:
“Sgt. Smith and his partner made contact with a pair of gang members which they did not know. While Sgt. Smith was searching one of the members, he noticed that the other gang ber lunged at his partner with an unknown object in his hand. Sgt. Smith intervened to protect his partner and was cut with an unknown object on the head. Sgt. Smith was taken to the hospital with a large laceration. It took 31 stitches to close the wound.”
Smith, a Port Arthur native, earned his bachelor’s degree in business administration from Lamar University in 1989. He joined the Dallas Police Department that same year. His wife teaches at Mary Immaculate in Farmers Branch.
“You couldn’t ask for a more salt of the earth kind of guy,” said Vanessa Smith, a family friend.
Married almost 20 years, with two children in their young teens, Smith wasn’t ready to retire.
In addition to his nearly three decades of service with the Dallas police department, Smith was a seven-year Army veteran.
“He loved his job and the guys on the force, and he loved his wife and kids,” said Vanessa Smith. “I can’t imagine what his wife and daughters are going through. You just don’t expect it. It’s devastating.”
The couple’s Carrollton neighborhood was quiet and solemn out of respect for the family, said one resident who only wanted to be identified as Kayla M.
“He was a very sweet family man, always outside playing softball with his girls,” Kayla said. “We’re a close neighborhood.”
Smith was a member of the Watermark Community Church in Dallas. Senior pastor Todd Wagner said that Smith understood that loving people was the best way to protect and serve them.
“It genuinely troubled him when he saw people treated as objects or when protocol got in the way of personal care,” Wagner said in a statement. “He never compromised his responsibilities, but he never walked away from a compassionate response.”
Dallas Police Officer Patrick Zamarripa
By Julieta Chiquillo
Lanette Martinez turned on the TV at her mother’s Fort Worth home when she heard about a shooting in downtown Dallas. She thought about her nephew Patrick Zamarripa, a Dallas police officer, but told herself he was probably in Arlington watching his cherished Texas Rangers.
Zamarripa’s grandmother felt uneasy.
“Gimme the phone,” she said. “I got to call Patricio.”
Just as bullets started flying in downtown Dallas, Kristy Villasenor took a picture at the ballpark with her 2-year-old daughter. She posted the photo to Facebook and tagged Zamarripa, the girl’s father.
“Glad Pat is there and not in Dallas right now …” a friend wrote on Facebook.
But he was downtown.
Zamarripa didn’t return texts or calls from his family. That was not like him, his father said.
Every time Rick Zamarripa feared for his son, he’d text and ask if he was safe. “Yeah, Dad, I’ll call you back later,” the officer would reply.
The elder Zamarripa and Martinez received news from the officer’s mother. She had been told to go to Parkland Memorial Hospital.
“This isn’t supposed to happen,” Martinez said Friday as she mourned her nephew. “You always think it’s somebody else. You feel for the fallen officers when we see something on TV; we hurt. You never expect for it to happen to you.”
Rick Zamarripa raced to Parkland, his mind reeling.
“I hope he’s all right. I hope he’s all right,” he told himself.
But when he got there and asked an officer how his son was doing, the officer’s face turned red.
As a young boy, Patrick Zamarripa dreamed of becoming a police officer, Martinez said. She described him a good kid who played baseball and served as an altar boy at the Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish in Fort Worth.
“He was always active in something,” Martinez said.
Zamarripa was quiet and laid back but had a contagious laugh, his aunt said. Her admiration was such that she asked him to be her son’s godfather when Zamarripa was in his early teens. He said yes.
While at Paschal High School, Zamarripa played baseball. He enlisted in the Navy after graduating in 2001. That didn’t surprise his father. The officer and his older sister liked dressing up as sailors when they were children. She also joined the Navy.
Zamarripa worked in the Navy for eight years and served several tours in Iraq, his family said. The officer was also active in the Navy Reserve, Martinez said.
“He wanted to serve God,” Martinez said, “and he wanted to serve his country.”
Zamarripa was featured in a 2004 Dallas Morning News story about U.S., British and Australian soldiers protecting Iraq’s rusted oil platforms in the Persian Gulf. The sailors lived for weeks at a time aboard the platforms, keeping a lookout over the water.
The Navy commandos — armed .50-caliber machine guns, grenade launchers and infrared scopes — boarded suspicious crafts off the coast of the Al Faw peninsula.
"We’re protecting the backbone of Iraq," said Zamarripa, then a petty officer second class, as he studied the horizon. "A terrorist attack here would send the country down the drain."
On July 4, Zamarripa wrote on Twitter: “Happy birthday to the greatest country on the face of this planet. My beloved America!”
His Twitter bio proclaimed him as “addicted to the thrill of this job.”
He was also addicted to the Texas Rangers. He strapped his little daughter, Lyncoln, to his chest and went to the ballpark with her. He took his stepson, Dylan, to baseball camp.
Zamarripa was el consentido — the favorite — among the boys in the family, his aunt said. When she heard on the news that a fourth officer had been killed, she held her breath.
Soon after, there was a knock on the door. Martinez rushed to open it. She thought it was her sister.
Instead, she saw three police officers.
“That dreaded knock on the door,” she said.
Ben Rogers, co-host of the “Ben & Skin” show on “The Fan” KRLD-FM (105.3), met Zamarripa at a Dallas event last year connecting sports celebrities with their fans.
Rogers said Dallas Cowboys tight end Jason Witten came up to him, insistent that he had to hear Zamarripa’s story.
Zamarripa had told Witten that he and another officer had responded to a call at an apartment complex that spiraled out of control. Zamarripa found himself pinned against a balcony, but he told Witten that his partner courageously pushed through the chaos to save him.
When Zamarripa asked his partner how he could repay him, the partner asked for a six pack of beer and for his friend to watch a Cowboys game with him.
“These guys were out there risking their lives to keep this a safe community and didn’t even want a big reward for it,” Rogers said. “It’s just how they were wired.”
Witten’s eyes welled with tears hearing Zamarripa’s story, Rogers said. The Cowboys star invited him and his partner to a game at the AT&T Stadium in November. Zamarripa sent a picture to Rogers, with whom he kept in touch.
“He was proud to serve,” Rogers said. “He was proud to be one of the good guys.”
Staff writer Jennifer Emily contributed to this report.
DART Police Officer Brent Thompson
By David Tarrant and Melissa Repko
Brent Thompson, a 43-year-old veteran with nine years as a DART officer, was remembered by his boss and colleagues Friday as superb officer and a “great guy,” with experience in the security field from combat zones in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Thompson married a fellow DART officer in the past two weeks, said James Spiller, DART police chief.
“We’re just trying to figure out how to get over this gut-punch we just got,” Spiller said.
Thompson patrolled downtown Dallas. He was assigned to that location because of his steadiness and an engaging personality.
“We deal with all kinds of people down here, so we try to have someone with the personality to deal with all kinds of individuals,” Spiller said, “someone with a personal touch and not a heavy-handed approach. And Brent was really good at that. He was a patrol officer, a great officer,” Spiller said.
Thompson came to Dallas after law enforcement and security stints in Corsicana and overseas. He served on active duty in the Marine Corps from 1991 to 1994, according to military records.
He also was a contractor in Afghanistan and Iraq, where he worked on security teams around Baghdad and elsewhere, according to his LinkedIn account. In Afghanistan, he worked in the dangerous Helmand and Kandahar Provinces.
“RIP PO Brent Thompson. Met him in Afghanistan, where he showed both bravery and empathy,” tweeted David Rohde, national security investigations editor for Thomson Reuters.
Thompson worked for six or seven years as an officer in Corsicana schools, keeping hundreds of schoolchildren safe, said Randy Ratliff, chief of police for Corsicana ISD.
Thompson graduated from Corsicana High School and his family members are “pillars of the community,” said Navarro County Sheriff Elmer Tanner.
His father, Sam Thompson, taught in Corsicana ISD and served as a football coach and athletic director. One of his brothers, Lowell Thompson, is the Navarro County District Attorney.
“It’s a tribute to the way they were raised to see what they’ve done and what roles they’ve filled in the community,” Tanner said.
During Thursday evening’s protest march, Thompson was working at the DART transfer station in downtown near the West End.
“He was making sure nobody got in the way of trains and helping with safety of passengers,” Spiller said. Thompson was standing near his patrol car when the shooting started.
Corsicana Police Chief Robert Johnson said Thompson worked with the police department’s tactical unit after he returned from Afghanistan. He said Thompson was always eager to pitch in and enthusiastic about his work in law enforcement.
“He was killed for one reason: He was wearing a uniform,” Johnson said. “It’s devastating to the entire law enforcement community, not just here but nationwide.”
Gary Thomas, DART president and executive director, said Thompson’s death marks the first fatality in the line of duty by a DART officer since the police department was formed in 1989. He said several DART officers shared how happy Thompson was about his recent wedding.
Copyright 2016 The Dallas Morning News
Tribune News Service
