Usually my editorial focuses on one topic in law enforcement news or culture. But this issue I’m going to discuss three things: the sacrifice of a Lorain, Ohio, officer; the insanity of people keeping military explosives in their homes; and my retirement.
There’s Always a Price
On July 23, 2025, two Lorain, Ohio, police officers decided to have lunch together. They bought a pizza at a local spot and then they drove in their patrol vehicles to a quiet spot in town.
The quiet spot they chose was an extension of Missouri Avenue that dead ends inside a prospective industrial park on the Black River. As they pulled up and parked their squads, they discovered that somebody else had parked a vehicle at the end of the street.
Investigators have not revealed what exactly happened next. But we do know the man parked at the end of the street opened fire. And we know that the officers who were expecting to eat lunch and chat in peace were suddenly taking rifle fire.
Officer Phillip Wagner was hit multiple times and mortally wounded (he died the next day in a Cleveland hospital). Officer Peter Gale who was parked beside Wagner, was also hit; he took a round in the hand. At least one of the officers called for help and both returned fire.
Help came in the form of Officer Brent Payne, who arrived on scene and joined the gunfight. Payne was also wounded during the exchange and had to be airlifted, when it was over, to a Cleveland hospital.
Officials have not released information on what weapons the officers had to counter the attack or what tactics they used, but we do know they were able to kill the shooter and end the battle.
The suspect was later identified as Michael Parker, 28. In his car, investigators found rifles and handguns, loaded magazines, and improvised explosive devices. Officials said he was “lying in wait” for the officers. That just doesn’t make sense to me. The only way it would make sense is if officers routinely ate lunch on that dead-end road.
I think he had other plans. I think those officers surprised him coming down the road while he was preparing to go somewhere else and use that arsenal in a mass shooting and bombing. I believe those Lorain officers saved a lot of lives that day, at great cost to themselves.
One thing I know, and I’ll say it straight up. You can’t defeat evil without sacrifice. It’s tragic but true. Thank you to all of you in law enforcement who have taken on the burden of knowing that someday you may be asked to make that sacrifice.
Explosive Surprises
Three Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies were killed in July while disposing of two grenades that had been found in an apartment in Santa Monica. Detective Joshua Kelley-Eklund, Detective Victor Lemus, and Detective William Osborn are now gone because somebody moved away and left two grenades behind in an apartment storage area.
I don’t know if those grenades were war souvenirs or were intended for killing rival gang members on the street. But I do know they had no business being in an apartment complex in Santa Monica.
They could have very likely been souvenirs. Reports of thrift shops calling out bomb squads over military explosives are not unheard of. People cleaning out the homes of deceased veterans sometimes just dump the stuff at the local Goodwill and sometimes the thrift store workers find surprises in the boxes.
Live military or police explosives are not collector’s items or souvenirs.
Thank You
I’ve written 250 or so editorials for this magazine. This will be my last. I have retired after 24 years at POLICE and about 40 years total working in magazines.
You can read my thoughts on the last 24 years of law enforcement technology and my career at POLICE starting on page 22. But I wanted to take this opportunity to thank some people who have meant the world to me. And I will do a much more self-indulgent version of this online.
Thanks to longtime POLICE publisher Leslie Pfeiffer for hiring me and being a really good boss for 20 years. Thanks to associate publisher, then publisher, Susan Freel for keeping me sane under some of the most stressful times of my career.
Thanks to Dean Scoville, Wayne Parham, and Paul Clinton for contributing excellent content as members of the editorial team.
Thanks to all of the many law enforcement officers and associated professionals who let me interview them on hundreds of topics. You taught me a lot.
A special thanks to Melanie Basich. For 20 years, Melanie was my associate, my assistant, my sounding board, my partner, my proofreader, my right hand, and so much more. I have missed working with her every day since she left the company in 2020.
Finally, thanks to the readers of POLICE. I hope you enjoyed my work.
I’ll leave you with a paraphrase of the great Sgt. Phil Esterhaus from the 1980’s TV show “Hill Street Blues.” Please be careful out there.
