A soon-to-be wed former NYPD cop who relocated to Texas was killed in a shootout Tuesday in a park near Dallas.
David Hofer, 29, who grew up in Brooklyn, was responding to a report of a suspicious person and possible gunfire at J.A. Carr Park in Euless, Tex., just after 2:45 p.m., said Police Chief Mike Brown.
“On approach, he encountered gunfire. Officer Hofer was struck, and responding Euless officers returned fire, striking the suspect,” who also died, Brown said.
Several cell phone videos captured the chaos, showing cops swarming the park and commanding the suspect to drop to the ground. Footage obtained by the Dallas Morning News captured the awful sounds — four quick gunshots followed by another three, then shouting.
After a few more single shots, someone can be heard yelling, “Put your hands up! On your knees!”
“About three police (officers were) running around the corner holding guns, and I noticed they were chasing something, someone,” witness Nelson Leka told WFAA News 8 in Texas.
Doctors performed emergency surgery on Hofer at Baylor Scott & White Medical Center in Grapevine, but he could not be saved. The suspect was dead on arrival at another hospital.
Hofer joined the NYPD in 2009 and was assigned to the 9th Precinct in the East Village. He left in January 2014 to join the Euless force, Brown said. He graduated from St. Anne’s High School in Brooklyn and was a 2008 graduate of New York University. Hofer is survived by his parents, sister and brother.
“This agency and community will not forget David’s servant heart and his dry wit,” Brown said.
A Jan. 30, 2015, Facebook post shows Hofer in uniform, on bended knee, presenting a ring to fiancée Marta Danylyk. The two bought a house in Plano, Tex., in November, public records show.
They moved in just before Christmas after sharing an apartment together, said neighbor Julie Kilgore.
They were just starting their lives together, really,” she said sadly.
Three memorial candles glowed Tuesday night outside the 9th Precinct stationhouse in New York, where officers remembered Hofer, as one put it, as a “very, very good guy.”
Before joining the department, he served as both a cadet and an auxiliary officer at the 6th Precinct in Greenwich Village for about three years, said one officer.
“He always wanted to be a cop. He loved being a cop,” an officer said, adding Hofer made the move to Euless to follow some NYPD buddies after visiting the them and liking the area.
“It’s horrible,” said one brother in blue. “We can’t believe it. He was a really nice guy.”
