The law enforcement community and the residents of Northeast Ohio are mourning the death of Lorain Police Officer Phillip Wagner, who was shot on July 23 in an ambush that also left two of his colleagues wounded.
Wagner had served with the Lorain Police Department for three years and, previously, with the Sheffield Village Police Department for four years.
The 35-year-old Marine Corps veteran was the third Ohio law enforcement officer killed in the line of duty this year. He is survived by his wife and three children.
Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost said he was “devastated by this senseless attack” and shared “the community’s grief at the loss of a hero.”
Wagner and Officer Peter Gale had just picked up pizza for lunch and were parked side by side along a dead-end road in a Lorain industrial park when, according to police, a 28-year-old man who was lying in wait opened fire. When the officers called for help, another officer, Brent Payne, was ambushed as he pulled up in his patrol car.
The shooter was killed in an exchange of gunfire with responding officers. Investigators searched his car and found high-powered rifles, handguns, and explosives. No motive has been established.
Wagner and Payne were flown to MetroHealth Medical Center in Cleveland, where Wagner died the next day. Payne underwent surgery for gunshot wounds in an arm and a leg and was eventually released from the hospital, although he will need additional surgeries. Gale was treated for a hand wound.
Lorain residents rallied behind their police department.
Mourners gathered for vigils in the days after the shootings and filled the police memorial outside City Hall with flowers, wreaths and candles. News reports said residents installed blue bulbs in their porch lights and displayed handmade signs in their yards. Tributes were posted on digital billboards in the area, and small businesses taped messages of condolence to their storefront windows.
Wagner was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart and Medal of Honor by Lorain Police Chief Michael Failing at a memorial service at Rocket Arena in downtown Cleveland. Law enforcement officers from throughout Ohio and beyond — as well as local and state political leaders, including AG Yost — were among the mourners.