When police officers responded to a disturbance call at a home in Tremonton, Utah, on Sunday, a man there immediately started shooting at them. Two officers were killed, a sheriff’s deputy was wounded and a police dog was also hospitalized with injuries.
It was an ambush.
Mayor Lyle Holmgren said the suspect’s “intention was to cause harm to as many police officers and public servants as possible.”
The shooting was the latest in a growing trend of ambush attacks against police officers nationwide. Shootings against police have jumped 60% since 2018, according to data tracked by the Fraternal Order of Police, a law enforcement member organization that’s been tracking the shootings since 2015 — and the percentage of ambush-style attacks is steadily growing.
At least 56 law enforcement officers have been shot in 45 ambush-style attacks in 2025 through July 31, more than 28% of total officers shot, according to data collected by the organization and analyzed by CBS News. Five years earlier, just over 20% of police officers shot in the line of duty were struck in ambush-style attacks.
The Fraternal Order of Police’s national president, Patrick Yoes, wrote a letter to Congress in March advocating for the “Protect and Serve Act,” which would create a new federal law against knowingly assaulting law enforcement. He said the deliberate attacks are contributing to a crisis in recruiting the next generation of officers and holding onto those who are currently serving.
In July, after a week of violence in which 10 police officers were shot, three fatally, Yoes wrote: “How many more officers must die before Congress acts? Our men and women in law enforcement deserve better.”
“Send everyone”
Often, what seem like routine calls are the precursors to planned bloodshed, like what happened to police officers in Fargo, North Dakota, when they responded to a car accident on July 14, 2023.
The call came in from dispatch: a BMW sport utility vehicle crashed into a Mazda on 25th Street in South Fargo, one of the city’s busiest streets. Newly minted Fargo police officer Tyler Hawes and his training officer, Andrew Dotas, headed to the scene to assist and interview the drivers and passengers involved.
Right away, Hawes, who graduated from the Fargo Police Academy seven weeks earlier, radioed dispatch for a second officer. He figured they could use some extra help speaking to witnesses and controlling traffic.
Officers Zachary Robinson and Jake Wallin arrived in about 10 minutes. Hawes, who attended the police academy with Wallin, recalled his friend and colleague asking as soon as he got there, “What do you need?”
Less than two minutes later they were ambushed.
Wallin, 23, was killed, and Hawes and Dotas were injured when a man named Mohamad Barakat opened fire from his 2006 Mercury Grand Marquis in a surprise attack, using an Anderson manufacturing rifle with a Bushnell scope. One other person at the scene, Karlee Koswick, was wounded, shot twice on the sidewalk as she tried to flee.
One witness, Kim Hauger Sr., heard what he said felt like the sound of a machine gun. Hauger told investigators he saw two police officers moving from the parking lot toward the boulevard, and then saw the officers fall to the ground.
Robinson radioed dispatch, saying shots had been fired.
“Send everyone,” he said, before opening fire on the suspect. “I shot like four times at him at that point,” he said, before reloading and killing Barakat.
The suspect had nothing to do with the vehicle crash. Investigators later found Barakat had been searching online for details on mass shootings, loaded his vehicle with rifles, two tactical vests, thousands of rounds of ammunition and a live grenade.
When he spotted the police officers, he decided to turn his deadly weapons on them — joining a steadily rising list of shooters who have deliberately ambushed law enforcement.
An upward trend — and training to respond
The FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Services Division launched an investigative study in 2025 in response to the troubling trend. Federal agents have begun interviewing offenders in a first-of-its-kind effort to piece together what can be learned about the rise in attacks on law enforcement officers nationwide.
Prior to the recent study, there has been scant research about ambush attacks against law enforcement and why these are happening.
One earlier study from the International Association of Chiefs of Police found 68% of ambushes were considered spontaneous, like the 2023 Fargo ambush, and 32% were planned. The report, published in 2014, analyzed data from 1990 to 2012, a year when six law enforcement officers were killed in ambushes.
According to the IACP, an ambush is defined by four components: an element of surprise, concealment of the assailant, suddenness of the attack, and a lack of provocation. Ambushes can be classified as either premeditated or spontaneous.
The FBI released a report in 2018 showing ambush attacks on law enforcement doubled from 1996 to 2016. It found that while fewer police officers were being killed overall, surprise attacks in which officers are killed were steadily increasing. (The FBI’s data counts officers killed in ambushes, while the FOP data counts all officers shot.)
There was a large spike in ambush-style attacks in 2023, when 138 officers were shot.
Texas has had more recent incidents than any other state; so far this year, eight officers there have been shot in seven ambush-style attacks. It’s followed by California and Ohio, each with four ambush-style attacks.
FBI law enforcement operations specialist Kevin Harris has been researching ambush attacks for several years, and he trains police around the country on how to prepare and respond.
“Just speaking in general, it’s been an upward trend that seems to just continue upward and has been for the last several years,” said Harris, who describes an ambush as an instance “where an officer is lured into a place where they can be attacked.”
His training sessions involve analyzing and discussing different ambush attacks that have occurred in recent years. Harris said he wants officers to know “they’ve always got to have that situational awareness.”
“I try to tell officers, ‘Look, you’ve got to find that fine line between being hypervigilant and dying of a heart attack at a young age,’” Harris said.
Lives changed forever
The trauma of these attacks ripples through families, police departments and communities around the country.
“Those lives are impacted forever,” said Harris.
Two years have passed since the Fargo attack and the officers who survived can now speak about what happened to them that day.
Officers Dotas and Hawes spent weeks in the hospital. Hospital staff, family, friends and other officers gathered to applaud as Dotas, wearing a “We are Fargo PD” sweatshirt, finally left the facility with his wife and young son, AJ, by his side.
Dotas, who said he joined the police force because he wanted to live “a meaningful life,” told CBS News about some of the challenges he faced during his long road to recovery.
“I didn’t really get a chance to be a protector anymore. I had to rely on, like, on everyone else to protect me,” he said.
He credits his faith and his family for pulling him through. He also said, looking back on that fateful day, “There was a lot of miracles that took place that day.” Dotas said the medics already being at the scene for the vehicle crash when the shooting happened probably helped save their lives.
Hawes said in an interview released by Fargo police that they were lucky there were two trauma rooms open and two fully staffed medical teams ready to help.
“This event affected everyone that lives here,” said trauma surgeon Dr. Enej Gasevic, who cared for the officers in a statement. He said it feels like the incident took away some of the innocence of living in the area.
Officer Wallin left behind his parents, brother and fiancée. Dotas, who returned to the force in February 2025, and many other Fargo police officers wear bracelets in his honor.
“It’s so hard because we lost Jake Wallin that day and his family will never have be able to hold him and be able to talk to him and be with him,” said Dotas. “He was a brand new guy,” he added, noting that he related to Wallin because they both served in the military.
Dotas said he often looks down at the bracelet when he’s working to remember Wallin and his willingness to serve.
“He gave his all, and that’s something that can never be taken away from him,” said Dotas.
contributed to this report.
Laura Geller is a multi-award-winning investigative journalist. She joined the CBS News and Stations Innovation Lab as a national investigative producer in September 2023.
The post Police officers across U.S. face crisis as ambush shootings rise appeared first on CBS News.
