Officer Patrick Zamarripa Survived 3 Tours in Iraq, Gunned Down in Dallas

Officer Patrick Zamarripa survived three tours in Iraq before being killed in Dallas
Washington Post
By John Woodrow Cox
July 8, 2016

He just liked to help people, his father said.

Patrick Zamarripa (left), one of five officers killed in a shooting incident in Dallas, Texas. (Family photo)

It had been 12 hours since he’d lost his son to one of the country’s worst mass police shootings, and he still couldn’t understand why.

Dallas police officer Patrick Zamarripa, 32, had survived three tours in Iraq, one of the world’s most dangerous places, his father, Rick Zamarripa, said Friday. And then this.

“He comes to the United States to protect people here,” his dad said. “And they take his life.”

Rick was watching television Thursday night when news broke that someone had opened fire in downtown Dallas around 9 p.m. at the end of a peaceful Black Lives Matter protest in the city. He knew that his son had recently begun working as a bike officer in the downtown area, an assignment he enjoyed.
read more here


The murderer was an Army Reservist and Afghanistan veteran.

Johnson served as an Army reservist until April 2015, defense officials said. He was trained and served in the Army Reserve as a carpentry and masonry specialist, they said. Johnson deployed to Afghanistan from November 2013 to July 2014, according to his service record. He had the rank of a private first class.