Officer Phillip Wagner of the Lorain (Ohio) Police Department died Thursday from wounds he suffered in a Wednesday ambush.Lorain County
Lorain County, Ohio, officials have announced that one of the three Lorain Police Department officers who was wounded in a Wednesday (July 23, 2025) ambush died Thursday.
Officer Phillip Wagner succumbed to his wounds in a Cleveland hospital.
Wagner and Officer Peter Gale were eating lunch in side-by-side patrol cars parked on a wooded dead-end road when a man opened fire on them with a rifle. Wagner was critically wounded in the attack. Gale was hit in the hand.
The wounded officers exchanged fire with the suspect, who was killed.
A third officer, Brent Payne responded as backup. He immediately came under attack and was also wounded.
Officers arriving on the scene put the three wounded officers in patrol vehicles and transported them to a local hospital.
Wagner and Payne were airlifted to Cleveland.
Officer Payne is recovering after initial surgery and additional surgeries are expected.
Acting Lorain Police Chief Michael Failing said the suspect was “laying in wait” with an “arsenal of weapons when he attacked the officers.
The suspect has been identified by law enforcement as 28-year-old Michael Parker.
An Elyria Police press release reports that inside Parker’s car investigators found multiple rifles, handguns, loaded magazines, and improvised explosives.
The shooting is being investigated by the Elyria Police Department, the Lorain County Sheriff’s Office, and the state Bureau of Criminal Investigation.
