A police officer who was killed in a Cleveland suburb this week is the latest law enforcement officer to be shot in an ambush, a type of attack on the rise across the country.
Officers Phillip Wagner and Peter Gale had just picked up pizza for lunch and were parked side by side along a dead-end road in Lorain, Ohio on Wednesday, when, according to police, a shooter was lying in wait.
Wagner, a Marine Corps veteran, was struck multiple times. The 35-year-old later died. Gale, 51, was hit in the hand. Another officer, 47-year-old Brent Payne, responded to the shooting and was critically wounded. Investigators said the shooter, 28-year-old Michael Parker, was killed during the exchange of gunfire.
AP Photo/John Seewer
Wednesday’s attack is the latest in a growing trend of ambush attacks against police officers across the country this year.
Data analyzed by the CBS News Crime Unit shows at least 50 law enforcement officers have been shot in ambush attacks so far this year — on track to exceed the 2024 total of 80.
The numbers significantly spiked in 2023, when 138 officers were ambushed.
The overall number of officers shot in the line of duty in any type of attack or incident has been growing too: 342 last year. That’s up 40% from 2018, according to a CBS News analysis of data collected by the Fraternal Order of Police.
Asked if there’s a pattern among the attackers, Steven Fioritto, a trustee of the Ohio Fraternal Order of Police, said, “A lot of times they describe the person as a loner, but not every loner is going to do that.”
The FBI has been studying the rising trend of officers shot in the line of duty. For ambush-style attacks, they’re interviewing both shooters and victims.
Their findings are part of a training CBS News attended in West Virginia for local law enforcement.
“They always have to have their head on a swivel,” FBI trainer Kevin Harris said. “They’ve always got to have that situational awareness, and the unfortunate thing about law enforcement is they’re truly never off duty.”
Nicole Sganga and
contributed to this report.
