Fargo Shooter Had Further Deadly Intentions: Full News Conference and Police Response Details Available

FARGO, ND (trfnews.i234.me) North Dakota Attorney General Drew Wrigley held a news conference to talk about the police response to a shooter in Fargo who killed 1 officer, wounded 2 others and a civilian last Friday. The shooter, 37-year old Mohamad Barakat had a massive amount of weapons and even a hand grenade. Officials say he planned more death, before Fargo Police Officer Zachary Robinson took him down. Wrigley praised Officer Robinson as a true hero. The last man who stood between the shooter and more carnage.
[Music] foreign [Music] with the um chief chief agent with the BCI director gabrowska has been here very actively engaged in this uh investigation over the weekend uh and leading on through today but he had to leave the state in a planned out of state Excursion but um we have a couple other agents here in the room with us today and I want to thank them for their work we’ll get to that more on Friday moments ago here in City Hall I was able to meet with Fargo police officer Zach Robinson and officer assured officer Robinson that I have made a complete review in the last days of uh the evidence the massive evidence that the BCI and other agencies federal and state and local have assembled in this investigation I’ve evaluated the videotape from multiple sources of the scene of this uh of this event photographs evidence testimonial evidence and information uh late yesterday afternoon the body cam warned by police officer Zach Robinson uh during the course of this uh entire event I assured uh officer Robinson that in evaluating all of that uh evidence we kept in mind the circumstances and everything that was taking place uh a week ago Friday in the wake of Muhammad barakat’s murderous unprovoked attack officer Zach Robinson’s use of deadly force was reasonable it was necessary it was justified and in all ways it was lawful Muhammad Barakat engaged in a Savage attack he engaged in unprovoked completely unprovoked assault by firing a long rifle 20 uh 22 223 I always get that wrong 223 he Unleashed what can only be described fairly as a murderous barrage of fire but that isn’t to say that it wasn’t precise in fact it was as we all know the toll of that assault was three officers down one officer deceased one civilian shot as she was trying to flee the gunfire the assailant in addition to carrying that 223 caliber long rifle it’s important to note that it was containing he was utilizing a double stacked mag which essentially means in addition to having a large capacity magazine it had two side by side a total of 60 rounds were capable of being fired from that weapon and most were in his initial barrage before he shot the civilian he as we said and as has been reported as you’re all aware he struck with multiple rounds police officer dotas police officer Hawes and he mortally wounded police officer walin as I said Carly kosowick who was involved in the car accident we’ll get into the details of this on Friday this was a car accident unrelated to the assailant but Carly coswick was involved in the accident she was standing on the sidewalk at the time and the gunfire broke out she did as anybody would do started running from the scene the assailant turned his rifle toward her and hit her with two live rounds at this time police officer Robinson was away from the other officers who were standing 15 maybe 20 feet the same distance that I am from the front row here that’s how far the officers were from from Barakat who was in his vehicle firing officer Robinson wasn’t in that parking lot though he was out in the road approximately 75 feet away from Muhammad Barakat you will eventually of course have the the body cam footage you may have seen some there’s some stuff out there on social media you’ll see the body cam from the officers we can’t release that at this point it remains a very active investigation the rapid the fire from the weapon from baraka’s weapon is rapid fire you will believe it to be when you hear it as officer Robinson reasonably believed it to be a fully automatic fire it’s that it’s that rapid the officer officer Robinson just happened to be standing behind as from where the shooter is he’s standing away from separated by one of the cars that was in the accident because he was going to move a police vehicle up to ensure that it didn’t get struck again after they moved one of the other vehicles out everything was very relaxed out there in nonchalant but he just happened to be standing on the other side of the vehicle from where Barakat now has shot rapid fire before you can even think in this situation um you don’t know where the shots are coming from it’s not clear at all accepted when you look up you know exactly where it’s coming from he had the presence of mind to phone in to radio call in shots fired shots fired not knowing if he was going to be the next officer struck and knowing that help had to be called in and had to be on the way again and again in watching through the evidence in this case you see that presence of mind the training the professionalism these are cliched words but they are true and the courage the absolute courage Under Fire displayed by peace police officer Robinson incredible he moved from behind the vehicle that was protecting him an exchange fire with the assailant at first his first shots were from behind the vehicle but he eventually moved around it his shooting even though at a distance and any of you ever shot a firearm a handgun this is an you’re outmatched pretty significantly at 75 feet someone has a a high-powered rifle with a scope on it officer Robinson kept his poise kept his Focus and one of the rounds that he fired at Barakat disabled the long rifle and saved saved around 20 rounds that would have been still available for the assailant to shoot he incapacitated it when it still had 20 rounds of rainy to shoot but Barakat wasn’t done as officer Robinson moved closer in on the defendant Barakat who’s now on the ground he’s continuing to call in only then was he able to even notice and see that he had three officers down which he called in they were the only four officers on the scene he called in he said three we have three officers down send everybody and send everybody they did but knowing he had on scene before the officer is able to observe the defendant whose rifle has been incapacitated has now re-armed himself he’s got a nine millimeter that he’s taken out and then he’s waving around officer Robinson gave repeated directives to the assailant hands up hands up put down the gun I watched the tape over and over 16 directives put down the gun the defendant was wounded but was waving the gun around from his position in the parking lot protected off from a car buy a car buy his car he persisted hands up again the officer exchanges additional fire put your hands up drop the gun still doesn’t drop the gun Officer Robinson add danger to himself in his life knowing that there are more civilians hiding behind the car just behind where the assailant is crouched just five maybe six feet away officer Robinson continues to close ground on the assailant goes around the vehicle comes around the back and gives one last command put down the gun he does not and the threat was neutralized by the officer I’m going to share some photos not many these are not ghoulish photos these are informational photos I will have them put up on the screen in a moment and I’ll describe this is the car that was being driven by the assailant and we’ll talk more Friday about the actions that we did see the movements prior to this incident but again he was not involved in the car accident nor could he have known that it happened it was just it was a pure fate moment that he happened upon this scene and all of these officers are out there he was on the street he eventually ends up this is the little parking lot where it was parked and then there’s a little grassway down to the road and the accident would have been happening just to the left of what you see where you see the Fargo police vehicle that’s where the accident between the two civilians occurred the defendant jumped out of the front seat of his car after he shot the officers from inside the car he absolutely ambushed them from inside that vehicle they had no way to know and he accessed one of the many weapons that he had in the vehicle all of which were loaded he jumped out and went around you can also see in that vehicle some of the other contents which we’re going to talk about in detail on Friday there were explosives in there there were canisters with gasoline in there and switch to the next photo please there was this homemade hand grenade which was in fact operable with the fuse out the top as you see that was inside the vehicle as well on a vest he didn’t have a bulletproof vest it was just sort of a I don’t know what you would call a shooting vest of some kind and it had loaded magazines all throughout in every pocket switch to the next picture please here’s the contents of what the defendant the assailant Muhammad Barakat had inside of his vehicle I’ll save you the counting there are 1800 live rounds of 223 which would fit into any one of those weapons long rifles up and they’re up in the right hand of that photo he had those three long rifles he had the he had four handguns uh including the nine millimeter that he was waving when the officer was directing him to put down the weapon and the rest of these were either inside the vehicle there was a suitcase that had weapons in it um that he had rolled out of his apartment just prior to taking the drive that brought him up to where this incident took place and again that is not a bulletproof vest it’s just a vest that you could wear and you keep all of the uh all of the the mags in there and the rest I guess is is self-explanatory I can go to the next picture oh and so we just had those three okay we’re gonna leave that but you can leave that up there I guess we’ll uh I’m gonna ask the uh the mayor’s gonna say a few words as is the chief and then we’ll take some questions along the line as we said in our announcement today we’re going to be talking just about the officer involved shooting component of this um again having informed uh officer Robinson uh the full review of these facts and circumstances make it so clear that is it was reasonable it was justified and lawful in every possible way thank you and we’ll get your questions in a moment Mr Mayor we want to thank Drew Wrigley and the BCI for bringing this report so quickly to us and we’ll have another report on Friday to wrap up a lot of what you have found it’s clear to us that our police officers were ambushed on this attack it’s clear to us with their training and what they’ve been taught they did the best reaction has that not neutralized this shooter we would have had many more casualties when you look at the amount of ammunition this Shooter had in his car he was planning on war Mayhem in our community I want to thank our officers and our two officers that are in the hospital recovering for their bravery and for standing up for our community there’s no question in my mind well-trained did the right thing Chief Dirksen is here and if his firemen had not reacted in speed and wish they did to save the two that were wounded we would have lost them as well it’s clear to me this person was out to kill I want to commend the police force all the work they’ve done the Command Staff keeping the focus on our policemen and police women that serve us because this is a real tough one to take the cert the uh officers that were speeding to the scene to help out if I could have got there early because if something else happened I don’t think so we did the things we had to do stabowski has been fantastic in working with the troops listening to them talking to them trying to find out what other things the community can do for that the new theme in our community is we are Fargo PD and what that means is not only are officers that serve us part of that but the community is if you want a safe Community we all are a part of this we all are our part to heal this as well and this is a time in which we need to grieve our fallen officer honor him for his service of our community pray for our two officers that are still recovering and as a team work together to continue to make our community safe and the community we love and I’ll tell you right now the officers are back on duty the fireman back on duty because they want to serve and their role they feel is to be in the community serving us oftentimes you say take some time off do some other things and chief you’ve had that over and over they say nope I want to come back I want the community to be safe so I’ll let the chief take a few words as well and then I think Drew we’re going to open you up for questions thank you very much sir thank you Mir uh thank you attorney general Wrigley and um really appreciate the expeditious efforts of your office uh the Bureau of criminal investigation to Casey director grabowska all the folks there on the field they’ve done tremendous work on this case a couple things I want to highlight um going off of what the Attorney General said are the absolute heroic efforts of Officer Zachary Robinson he was essentially the last person standing between this individual who was obviously dead set on some pretty horrific acts targets unknown at this time and on Friday when the Attorney General is ready to conclude their investigation we’ll find out a little more about that but certainly this individual had at his at his disposal the weaponry and the intent and the commitment to Place great Carnage upon our community but for the acts of Zachary Robinson as far as the concern all of these cops are heroes we mourn loss of officer willeen was just an excellent kid committed to the same values and ideals that all of us are we continue to pray for the recovery of Officer dodus officer Hawes all heroes and what they did but Jack Robinson in a split second the shots go off and yes by God’s grace he wasn’t standing with the three that were approaching this individual’s car completely unknowing that he was sitting there behind the door with a rifle ready to start shooting at him Zach immediately took cover drew his firearm got on the air and engage this individual from an extensive distance so I don’t know how many of you have gone through training or pistol training 75 plus feet with a pistol is a pretty good range to be able to hit a Target especially when at the same time you’re being fired at by a high-powered rifle uh that’s just incredible the fact that he was able to hit this individual and disable that firearm and he didn’t stop there he moved up he moved towards the threat because the man continued to come up with firearms and it was a continued threat and he knew full well the whole time that until he neutralized this individual his fellow officers couldn’t get that critical medical care that ultimately saved their lives so not only distance but time probably not a lot of people here have been in a gunfight most gunfights in law enforcement last seconds this gunfight lasted a Scotia over two minutes two minutes of exchanging gunfire moving taking cover approaching the suspect as he was still armed and firing and ultimately dispatching him that’s a hell of an effort and it’s an incredible Act of Valor and heroism he also shows great restraint in what he does is that each phase he gave this individual multiple multiple opportunities to surrender the suspect was dead set and committing to fire harm and shoot people going from one weapon to the other refusing to stay down left officer Robinson with no other choice but to ultimately fatally shoot him and stop that threat had he not done that or head officer Robinson that succeeded in what he was going to do the likelihood that other people in our community would have been harmed was very high I just want to point that out for everyone because not only for officer Robinson but for all our folks you know a lot of times we talk about Uncommon Valor in our department in our profession that is Common Valor that’s what every one of our officers has been trained to do go towards the threat did exactly as it was trained while his other colleagues were Lane pleading on the on the grass in his quick action two minutes is a long time that’s as quick as he could have ended this allowed for that quick life-saving medical attention by our Fargo fire department who did a tremendous job jumped right out in an unsafe scene and provided that critical Medical Care got them transported out and uh in the hospital continuing to recuperate all we really want to well we honor Jake and his sacrifice which was tremendous and terrible I think I just want to encapsulate a little bit about how significant of an action this was thank you and we’re gonna wait till you get a microphone back there and we’ll get to all your questions for uh for Drew Ridgway um well take us through your thought process the the moment that you were told that this had happened here in Fargo and what was your reaction yeah you know I I can understand the question I’m going to answer that on on Friday we’ll talk about that stuff and I I only say that because I think that’s the better context for this uh and I’m glad to go through that to the extent that anybody cares what my thought process was on it because I mean this has been a matter that has really gripped the area and uh law enforcement in particular and law enforcement families had the privilege over the weekend to go to the hospital several times and um you know we uh you pointed out a lot in law enforcement and people in the military too every one of these men and women and people who love them who depend on on them care for them deeply and every day they go out the door uh worried that a call like this is going to come and and uh you know I met a lot of uh just amazing people last several days talking with them so we’ll be talking about it’s their state of what was in their minds and heart that uh that it comes to bear on and chief I didn’t see it sitting over there and I’m glad I got mentioned we’re gonna talk about this more Friday um the results of this would have been even worse much worse without the Fargo fire department thank God on so many fronts that things I mean after this horrible thing that things fell into place as they did including people there to care for people who had absolute immediate need I know you are and you deserve to be so proud of their reaction to uh uh they’re not trained they’re not supposed to be going out there and getting shot at and they didn’t wait around to see if there was another shooter either they were immediately moving in and I hope you’ll pass that on to them for us thanks thank you thank you two questions one you mentioned the the gun and the modifications um was everything legally acquired as far as the weapon that he used and the other question I’d asked is just what you showed us today it’s on the screen now uh what was in the vehicle what you described um leads anybody that’s reasonable to believe that there was something else planned what do you believe that was uh that’s what we’ll talk about on Friday a little bit we’ll have an answer for you in that I wish I could tell you what his what was motivated motivating him what says why but uh it’s pretty clear to us as a result of uh forensic evaluations performed by rbci of whom I you know when I was a Fed you’re supposed to make fun of other law enforcement and I I said for my 10 years as U.S attorney just to the critical role that the BCI plays and to be able to work with them so closely as the attorney general and watch them this week and working with everyone else is remarkable they in a very short period of time we’re able to get through the some forensics that were seized and some other materials and we’re going to be talking to you about that uh on Friday the weapons though I will answer that question to our knowledge at this point they were all legally purchased we don’t have other information the investigation continues on he was not a prohibited person did not have convictions that would preclude him from lawfully carrying firearms and those are matters of Interest I suppose too but uh and there I should mention there was a search warrant that we executed uh on the on his residence that night and over the weekend and additional uh firearms and other materials were seized there describe the mannerisms of um Bearcat what was he doing what was he acting like what was he shouting back at officers if anything um I’m not going to get too far into that but but even when I do talk about that a little bit Friday there’s not much to add about that he uh you know I’ve spoken to Zach about that too just he pulled in so nonchalantly I’ll describe his actions more fully because he’s on video we’ve got video from neighboring businesses and other stuff we’ve got uh once you know what the vehicle is now you’re going to notice it is otherwise unnoteworthy and you’re going to see it and you see it go around and it’s casing the place up and stalking his way in and sizing up his opportunity and then parks there and spends minutes watching the officers and waits until they are literally walking having no reason to not you know there’s no reason not to until they’re literally walking to where roughly the same distance between myself and Scott hen at this point that’s when he lifts his firearm out the window and begins firing it was an absolute Ambush there’s no other way to describe that the officers had no time none whatsoever to possibly get a hand on a weapon let alone unholster a weapon it is so rapid the fire that when I found out that it is not an automatic weapon so to speak I’ll discuss that a little bit more on Friday uh it’ll fool everybody who listens to it including officer Robinson when he gave his statement what he believed it to be reasonably um like I said 40 rounds he gets off before officer Robinson so expertly just and poised in taking the time to just squeeze off that that round that you that you hit dead center on him and it catches the gun and incapacitates it or there were another 20. uh 20 very significant rounds coming his way can you confirm if Bearcat was he originally from Syria and when did he come to Fargo I’m going to let the uh the FBI speak to that they’ll be with us on Friday um they can address that question for you are there any rumors about the shooting that you would like to put to rest I mean there are definitely more rumors that I’m aware of because I I found myself looking through Twitter the other night my eyes were rolling so intensely it wasn’t didn’t seem like it was good for my health I mean there’s some good ones out there and I just would caution people you know myself and anyone else up here that I’m looking at I have never been known to be reluctant to discuss our work we’re paid by the public the public gets to know what we do and and we’ve got good records on that we we want to get this information out we do uh the most you know the public needed to know right away was there an ongoing danger to the public and there wasn’t very early on I mean I’m still driving over from Bismarck this way and we knew that their the threat had been neutralized and nothing we learned over the weekend was different and the public can always know we would absolutely alert the public or whoever needed to know if there’s additional dangers um there was a talk about possibly it was a friendly fire from uh one or more of the officers who struck the civilian that that is just not true I don’t think anybody meant anything by that maybe there’s a speculation no it was is barcot uh saw her running and moves his rifle over and and shoots her in a couple of rounds sketches over the couple of rounds and very significant injuries I’ve had an opportunity to talk with her a couple of times and spoke with her parents uh as well and uh there also as are the families of the officers just so deeply appreciative of what they know was extraordinary care the um the police actions taken in in this case I would say the same with the investigative actions uh are not your regular routine just you know like we we build this and I’ve stood in a lot of courtrooms it’s funny to me the number of times you’re in court was like people think they sign up for getting punched in the job when they’re arresting somebody or sign up for you know the everybody’s fleeing these days everybody takes off running in their vehicles or resists arrest that’s not what they sign up for that’s a cultural shift it’s very significant and so um you know we want to address those things it wasn’t the officers uh somehow errantly an errant shot which can happen in a moment of flurry like this not the case that was another one I I’m trying to think of um some reason when I started to read to some reason I had a reason to hide his photograph and I didn’t want anybody to see it I guess uh I don’t not the case I’m not hiding his photograph we don’t have a photograph of him we don’t have any booking photographs of him because he’s never been booked so we don’t have anything to offer to people there the dot does have his driver’s license photo which we’re not at this point able to release and there’s it’s just in North Dakota law we’ll we’ll examine that if there’s a way that we can get this Photograph out as you might imagine that could help law enforcement efforts potentially we could maybe get additional information so we’re on that if I’ve missed any of the rumors and there are more but um making sure people that us not discussing it at length the other day the chief did a wonderful job at the press conference that we had here on Saturday um we’ve not been talking about what we’re talking about here just because things have got to go in the normal course the investigation and it still remains active by the way but all the law enforce entities are comfortable with us coming out there to have this discussion because this is an important matter that everyone understands and accepts can easily be resolved with the information we currently have including video audio live testimony uh two questions here uh phrases like more Mayhem and great great Carnage were just used was this just the beginning of a potential mass shooting across the Fargo area with the street fair and the Red River Valley Fair going on I won’t go any further but to say I believe yes that it was and I I said to officer Robinson upstairs I it’s absolutely true he was literally the last man standing the last man standing between what was coming next and what you can see this assailant was armed for and by the grace of God he’s standing away from where the other officers are when the shooting starts and he can he can in a composed fashion order in other law enforcement emerge it when he says bring everyone it really does get me I gotta tell you here he is he’s under Fire he knows he knows we need everyone he’s talking ambulance everything right he doesn’t incapacitate that 223 there’s 23 more chances that he’s in the position of his brother officers none of which stops him from standing up and doing exactly what he did everything he could to neutralize that threat and if it doesn’t happen it’s about a four or five minute drive to downtown Fargo and we’ll discuss Friday why we had reason to believe we knew where he was headed and there were a lot of people down here Friday afternoon and all law enforcement you know law enforcement had a heavy response back I mean it would have been catastrophic situation that he would have manufactured but for the training expertise and bravery of a police department and in the in the face and name in this instance of officer Robinson uh standing out there it cannot I can’t I can’t underscore it enough I just can’t I’ve been in and out of law enforcement for a lot of years since about 1993. I’ve seen a lot this stands out quite dramatically and my second question the American flag decals up there on some of the uh I guess Eclipse any significance to that I don’t have an answer for you on that I don’t know can you clarify how many rounds were fired by Officer Robinson and also uh during the two minutes that the gunfire was happening did any other officers arrive on the scene thank you for the questions I I had intended to address uh both of those forgive me for not doing so officer Robinson uh returned fire um he was able to in a relatively short period of time but he’s able to get off 30 or 31 rounds with his service weapon a nine millimeter he had to change Clips uh in there so you starting off not only outgunned through no fault of his own you don’t have your you know you don’t have your you don’t have your semi-automatic automatic weapon out there with you when you’re doing a car a car crash a fender bender but he wasn’t near his his vehicle so he couldn’t get to it as the gunfire erupted so he’s outgun with his nine millimeter and also you know I don’t know what the capacity is in that Chief is it a is it a 20 round capacity in his I think it’s 17 okay 17 and he got off one and one one through one mag got in got into the other one in 30 or 31 rounds were returned 40 or 41 rounds fired as I I think I did say uh by Muhammad Barakat uh the 223 rounds and uh and uh another almost almost couple dozen left in the left in the gun because the officer was able to disable it with the round I believe that this picture speaks thousands of words as to what you know the intent was for the community and for the city of Fargo my question is at this time with the facts that we do have are we considering this an act of terrorism I I don’t have an answer for you on that if I did I’d give it to you I uh you know we’re looking into all those things and those are federal statutes with uh that go to the heart of what is the motivation either of the Target that you’re going after or what’s motivating you to act and I you know I think probably the FBI is the best to to answer that based on the information that we have buying questions you said he was in his car when he was firing at the officers initially or was he he was inside he was I’m sorry he was inside the car when he fired up the at the officers when he struck uh and I don’t I don’t want to go don’t time into this uh the order of them it was so rapid but um officer walin who was just this distance away officer Hawes and officer Doris daughters were all uh shot while he was inside the vehicle he began to fire uh he shot at the uh I believe he’s still in the vehicle when he shot at uh Carly as she started to flee in the wake of the officers dropping and and when the video is able to be released and we understand the interest in that we do and I don’t think it’s just praying people want to know about what is happening here um she it happens so rapidly they go down very quickly like I said no one had an opportunity to even get to a weapon and she’s she turned and and tried to flee and was shot by him there also he got up in the midst of his uh exchanging fire with officer Robinson uh he got up exited the vehicle um and then kind of ran around the back of his vehicle around the other side so that he had that buffer between himself and Robinson okay and uh there was at least one round I saw the vehicle on Saturday there’s at least one round that struck the top of the frame and and maybe others were pulled out of there we may have some more details for you on that on on Friday and then he got to the other side and that’s where officer Robinson um yeah I listened to his uh the audio of his uh interview by BCI yesterday and he he literally says and he actually speaks out loud a couple times on tape too he’s really um he’s coaching his that’s not the right word he’s talking himself through this at times too and he uh he he’s and he’s he is saying he said during the interview though that he was thinking I’ve got to squeeze off some good ones I’ve got to you know he just make sure he’s extra composed and he did that that’s an incredible presence of mine uh in that circumstance and uh I I think I don’t know how you’d say he wouldn’t didn’t save the situation because he’s still completely outgunned he’s only got those number of Megs and that guy still has got 20 at least 20 rounds left in that in that rifle it’s an incredible incredible act and did Barrack had ever ever shoot in the rounds from the nine millimeter that he was waving around we we do not believe so no we don’t believe so he was waving around and refused to put it down and and the the legal circumstances would have had there was latitude for officer Robinson to more rapidly and be careful how I I want to be delicate I don’t I uh he showed incredible restraint at risk to himself in continuing through as I said 16 directives the last one being after the defendant persisted he came around he had no choice but to end the threat and he did foreign obviously this is a lot of ammunition and a lot of guns is this gonna prompt any conversations or laws about further restricting how much ammunition or what type of guns people can get in North Dakota I I don’t have really have any idea what it’s gonna what it’s gonna prompt along those lines I am I I don’t I don’t have an answer for you on that today I don’t know uh one question for Drew and I don’t know if you’d be willing to answer a question Chief uh True how’s officer Robinson doing you know you just had a conversation any insight you can give to us about how he’s doing just mentally and emotionally and then Chief I whoops I didn’t know if you could give us an update on the two officers who are still hospitalized today please I’m going to respect his privacy but I but I I don’t think he’d mind me mentioning that I don’t think he’s merely being stoic that’s what I think being stoic would be just merely and say I just decided to shut it off he’s a he’s a foreign I’ll tell you that much he’s professional he’s smart you can tell he’s sharp and uh whether he accepts it or not he’s one of the most courageous that that conduct is some of the most courageous I’ve ever witnessed and he um his he seems and he is deeply relieved that uh that some lives were able to be saved and obviously deeply saddened uh well lean I’ll let the chief talk to that but he’s holding up I would characterize this very well uh very professional and um I I I feel like I’m on pretty Solid Ground saying isn’t questioning for one second did he go into the right line of work he knows that he did and he uh he nodded at me when I said you were the last man standing you were the last thing between there and what was going to come next he just nodded he knows he knows and humbly accepts that and uh and his uh how was you to say it he’s smart for Life by this by the negative part of it and Mark for life 2 is a guy who sought this work was trained to do this work and when all the chips were down where everybody had to depend on him he delivered big time big time I Chief I didn’t mean to talk too much for your your guy up there because that was a nice conversational yeah absolutely no you’re right on Beck’s very humble guy very competent individual just uh accreditory department and I think symbolic of the men and women that we have on our department very proud of all of them in terms of our two officers uh Andrew and Tyler up at the hospital still critical stable condition um I guess I would say moving and you know improving but you know we’re still we still need those thoughts and prayers for them they’ve got some obstacles to overcome and we’re going to continue to monitor that and support their families and this is this is for regularly um the final question I have for you sir is you know you guys have been talking about you know the heroic efforts by the officers by everyone involved in this but speaking about officer Robinson what do you want the state of North Dakota to know about what he has meant to the situation and what he what he did to save a lot of people yeah I think uh I I think that’s actually easy be worthy be worthy or what he did be worthy of what all these men and women do be worthy help them help law enforcement Let’s Help turn turn back the culture where it shifted the last 10 years the violence towards officers let’s do our part on that let’s put in a couple of laws that we need to do I’ll talk about that another day be worthy be worthy of what they’re willing to do and someday when this video comes out the video from the body cam watch it and understand that there are these people who will do these things that we won’t and that we rely on them to do and as I always say back of the blue back the blue don’t just go to their funerals don’t just show up at the Peace Officers Memorial don’t just seek their support when you need it back to Blue back the blue do things to say our laws are worthy of the work that they do what they risk doing people are we’re neutralizing threats we’re putting people away who are violent who are harmful to our society into law enforcement be worthy of it make tough choices we’re necessary be harsh they’re doing their job they shouldn’t have to face these people so quickly again and people say well that’s not what happened in this case that’s right but you ask they face this every day one of the agents standing in the back of this room on Saturday said to me This Is The New Normal I said I know it you and I know it brother been talking about it for a long time treatment of law enforcement the vast majority of the public loves our law enforcement we support our lawn but too many for too long don’t and it’s eroding and getting worse I’m old enough to remember it hasn’t always been this way and violence towards police and towards our communities was dealt with harshly reform yes we need reform we’re all about reform we want to battle recidivism yes we do all those things some people need to be extracted from our communities for long periods of time to protect the public this isn’t the perfect case for that I’m going to stop on this but I’m never going to stop on this issue I ran for attorney general for this I’ve been involved in law enforcement because of this be worthy no one’s going to watch this film and not feel a little sense of like your own guilt are we are we even good enough for this this young man has a young child he has a wife he has a young child he has another baby on the way he is putting it on the line every day even when he’s out at the scene of a fender vendor every day and I just told you before this question I can tell this about him he went into this work the purpose he’s extremely well trained and he answered the call when who can know when the chips are all down who can really know how you’re going to conduct yourself in that moment he knows be worthy of it thanks everybody we’ll see you Friday [Music]