Hofer had been with the Euless Police Department since January 2014 and had previously been employed by the New York City Police Department.
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‘He was working this very hard precinct and he had a lot of traumatic experiences…so he chose to go to a safer place’.
Three officers showed up at the park. Members of the community and even officers from other departments have been leaving notes, flowers, candles and other items to show how much they cared about Officer David Hofer.
Brown said the suspect, Jorge Gonzalez, hid in a drainage ditch and was clutching stolen guns as Hofer approached, yelling for Gonzalez to surrender to police.
Hofer was taken to a nearby hospital but died of his wounds, reports say.
Police officers in Euless, just south of the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, responded to a report of shots fired at J.A. Carr Park.
A spokeswoman with the Hurst-Euless-Bedford school district said the district was notified that gunshots had been heard near Oakwood Terrace Elementary School at about 3 p.m. The school was placed on lockdown and police were contacted.
Brown said Gonzalez did not appear intoxicated at his court hearing Tuesday, but was calm and responsive.
Officer Hofer made a splash when he proposed to his girlfriend.
The Dallas Morning News reported that the suspect was armed with a high-powered rifle, but authorities have not yet confirmed this.
Hofer is survived by his fiancee, his parents and a brother and a sister.
“I thought he might be a scientist, like his father, but he always wanted to be a policeman, ever since he was a little boy”, she said.
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The officer is the second to die in the line of duty in Euless, a city of about 53,000 in Northeast Tarrant County.
