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.
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 following are profiles of the five officers who died in the attack:
Brent Thompson
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 said on its website.
“As you can imagine, our hearts are broken,” a DART statement said.
Thompson spent more than four years in Iraq, working for private US military contractor DynCorp International as a police liaison officer who supervised Americans responsible for training and mentoring the Iraqi police force, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Thompson was married to a fellow DART officer. The couple married about two weeks ago – and Thompson was also a father and a grandfather from a previous marriage.
Patrick ‘Patricio’ Zamarripa
Navy veteran Patrick Zamarripa, 32, who served three tours in Iraq was killed in the attack, his family told Reuters. He served in the military reserves as well as working as a Dallas policeman.
His uncle, Hector Zamarripa, said by telephone that Zamarripa was a proud Mexican-American who leaves behind him a wife, their toddler-age daughter, and a stepson. Although he did not speak much Spanish, he went by the name Patricio among his Spanish-speaking friends and relatives.
“He enjoyed the job, that was his calling,” his uncle said.
A lover of Tejano music, he posted pictures of his daughter, selfies with other officers on duty; he also loved the Dallas Cowboys football team and the Rangers baseball team.
Michael Krol
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.
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
Michael Smith, 55, also died in the attack, KFDM television in southeastern Texas reported, citing his sister. Smith grew up in Port Arthur, Texas, and served in the military as an Army Ranger before joining the Dallas police in 1989, the television report said.
A GoFundMe page set up to help Smith’s family said he left behind a wife of 17 years and two daughters, aged 9 and 14.
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