❓WHAT HAPPENED: A police officer in Lorain, Ohio, was killed in an ambush attack, with two other officers injured during the exchange of gunfire.
👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: Officers Phillip Wagner, Peter Gale, Brent Payne, and suspect Michael Parker.
📍WHEN & WHERE: July 2025 in Lorain, Ohio, along a dead-end road.
💬KEY QUOTE: “They’ve always got to have that situational awareness, and the unfortunate thing about law enforcement is they’re truly never off duty.” – Kevin Harris, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) trainer.
🎯IMPACT: The attack highlights a disturbing rise in ambushes targeting law enforcement, with at least 50 officers shot in such attacks this year.
A police officer in Lorain, Ohio, was killed July 23 in what authorities describe as an ambush-style shooting. Officer Phillip Wagner, 35, a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps, died after being struck multiple times by gunfire. Two fellow officers, Peter Gale, 51, and Brent Payne, 47, were also shot during the incident, with Payne remaining in critical condition as of the time of publication. The suspected gunman, 28-year-old Michael Parker, was killed during an exchange of fire with law enforcement.
The attack occurred around 1 PM along a dead-end road where Wagner and Gale had reportedly parked after picking up lunch. According to police, Parker had been lying in wait before opening fire. Authorities said that several firearms, magazines, and improvised explosive devices (IEDs) were found in the suspect’s vehicle.
The violent encounter is part of a trend in the U.S. involving ambushes against law enforcement officers. Statistics indicate that at least 50 officers have been shot in ambush-style attacks in 2025 so far. The annual total could eventually surpass the 80 such incidents recorded in 2024. The peak was in 2023, when 138 ambush-style shootings were reported. Overall, 342 officers were shot in the line of duty last year, up 40 percent compared to 2018, according to the Fraternal Order of Police.
Steven Fioritto, a trustee with the Ohio Fraternal Order of Police, commented on the pattern seen in many of these cases: “A lot of times they describe the person as a loner, but not every loner is going to do that.”
The Federal Bureau of Investgation (FBI) has taken a deeper interest in the rise of these types of attacks. Agents have interviewed both victims and perpetrators in an attempt to understand the motivations behind the violence. FBI trainer Kevin Harris spoke to the daily challenges officers face: “They’ve always got to have that situational awareness, and the unfortunate thing about law enforcement is they’re truly never off duty.”
The Democratic Party has been intensifying its rhetoric against law enforcement involved in deportations, in particular, since President Donald J. Trump’s reelection, with 2024 vice presidential candidate going so far as to describe U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement as “Gestapo.”
ICE agents, Border Patrol agents, and regular law enforcement supporting them have been targeted in a number of ambush attacks already this year.
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