[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 10]
[Senate]
[Pages 14502-14503]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   HONORING ALASKA'S LAW ENFORCEMENT

  Ms. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, as many of my colleagues know, I have 
been proud to associate myself with the work of the National Law 
Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund. I have been doing this for the many 
years I have been here in the Senate, and I have been privileged over 
the years to read the names of Alaska's fallen law enforcement 
officers. They have a candlelight vigil that occurs at that memorial 
every May. It is an extraordinarily powerful and moving vigil. From my 
seat, I am able to look out and see thousands of individuals, and 
directly in front of the stage they have the wives, husbands, parents, 
and children of those officers who paid the ultimate sacrifice. As I 
think of the families, individuals, and those who have

[[Page 14503]]

served and paid the ultimate sacrifice, it is very difficult to find 
words that express the depth of my gratitude for their service or the 
depth of my sorrow.
  It is a great honor to be asked and a duty to demonstrate my 
solidarity with the thin blue line. I go each year hoping that I will 
not be invited back the next year because that would mean Alaska did 
not lose a law enforcement officer in the previous year. Unfortunately, 
I will be invited back to the 2017 ceremony because the year 2016, this 
year, I am sad to say has been a most difficult one for the law 
enforcement community in Alaska. This past autumn has been particularly 
difficult.
  Since this body recessed at the end of September, 25 law enforcement 
officers have lost their lives in the line of duty--15 to gunfire. 
Firearms-related law enforcement fatalities are up 70 percent according 
to the Officer Down Memorial Page. This year we have to contend with a 
particular type of firearms-related fatality, the ambush shooting. This 
year, 2016, will go down in the annals of law enforcement as the year 
of the ambush shooting. From Stanislaus County, CA, to Canonsburg, PA; 
from New York City to Des Moines, IA; from Peach County, GA, to Palm 
Springs, CA, it seems no corner of the country is immune from this 
tragic trend. Unfortunately, Alaska is not immune from it either.
  Just this last Saturday, on November 12, Anchorage police officer Arn 
Salao was dispatched on a call involving an individual who failed to 
pay a taxi fair, and as he pulled up to the scene, an individual opened 
fire on his patrol car. Officer Salao exited his car and began to 
return fire, but he was struck four times before the assailant was 
brought down by Officer Salao and his backup. It turns out--we have 
just learned this within the past day--that the perpetrator's gun was 
linked through ballistics to five homicides in Anchorage during this 
year of 2016.
  Officer Salao has undergone two surgeries and he is expected to 
survive. On behalf of a grateful Senate, I will take this opportunity 
to recognize Anchorage Police Officer Arn Salao for his bravery and his 
heroism, and wish him Godspeed in his recovery.
  I would also like to extend my appreciation to the men and women of 
the Anchorage Police Department under the able leadership of Chief 
Chris Tolley. Chief Tolley is very proud of his team--and justifiably 
so--from the officers on the scene to the dispatchers who calmly 
managed the situation, to the investigators who pieced together the 
story.
  Up in Fairbanks, to the north of Anchorage, we had a different 
outcome with a different ambush shooting. Sergeant Allen Brandt of the 
Fairbanks Police Department was not so fortunate. On the evening of 
Saturday, October 15, Sergeant Brandt gathered his four children, 
brought them together on his bed before he was going out to report for 
duty. That was ordinary for this sergeant--four young kids under the 
age of--I believe it is 8--all snuggling with their dad as he prepared 
to read a story, as he did each and every day. Unfortunately, nothing 
beyond that was ordinary about that particular evening. Sergeant Brandt 
had a premonition that he would get shot that evening, and he actually 
shared that with his family.
  Sergeant Brandt was dispatched to a call of shots fired in downtown 
Fairbanks later that evening. He pulled up on the scene. He was shot 
six times by an assailant who took his gun and his patrol car, leaving 
Sergeant Brandt on the street to die. Hearing the gunfire, Brenda Riley 
rushed out of her home. It was late. It was cold. She was wearing a 
robe and slippers, and she literally held Sergeant Brandt in her arms 
while help arrived.
  The sergeant was first taken to Fairbanks Memorial Hospital, and then 
he was air-lifted to Alaska Regional Hospital in Anchorage. I had an 
opportunity to visit with him just hours after the shooting there at 
the hospital in Anchorage and had an opportunity to not only hear 
directly from Sergeant Brandt about the circumstances behind the 
shooting but to share his thoughts with his wife present as well as his 
best friend.
  Sergeant Brandt was supposed to survive. His most serious injury was 
shrapnel to the eye. He had been shot multiple times in the legs, took 
a shot directly to his chest, and, fortunately, the bulletproof vest 
saved him, but shrapnel came up into his eye. At the time I saw him, he 
had a patch. He was quite concerned that he would lose his eyesight 
and, if he lost his eyesight, he was concerned that he wouldn't be able 
to continue to serve in the Fairbanks Police Department--a concern he 
said was very troubling.
  The sergeant was released from the hospital. He returned home to 
Fairbanks to thank Mrs. Riley and to thank the Fairbanks community for 
their support. Eight days after he was released from the hospital, 
Sergeant Brandt went to the Fairbanks City Council. He went to speak 
before the council. It was actually the same day that the new mayor was 
being sworn in, new council members were being sworn in.
  Sergeant Brandt wanted to thank the community of Fairbanks. A devout 
and humble man, Sergeant Brandt told the council that he has seen the 
hand of the Lord. Yet, he noted, we have many fine officers who have 
done greater and better things than I have. He said: Our officers do a 
very hard job and they need your support. Working weekends when their 
friends are working nights, sleeping during the day, the time that you 
miss with your family.
  In Sergeant Brandt's words, officers do a hard job and most of the 
time thankless. He said: We need your support and not just when bad 
things happen.
  He asked the council:

       Can you imagine telling your kids before you go to work 
     that you think you are going to be shot? That's what our 
     police officers deal with every day. I just want you to know 
     what life is like for a police officer.

  Those were the words that Sergeant Brandt shared with the Fairbanks 
City Council.
  Later that week, Sergeant Brandt returned to Anchorage for scheduled 
eye surgery. He was fighting to save his eyes, again, in hopes of 
returning to duty. Unfortunately, Sergeant Brandt died from 
complications of that surgery. His assailant has been charged with 
murder in the first degree.
  Sergeant Brandt's final public utterance--that the law enforcement 
family needs the support of the community and not just when an officer 
has been shot--these words must resonate throughout this Nation. As we 
reflect on a tragic year about to close, it is my sincere hope this 
will be our national resolve in the year to come.
  Like every other law enforcement officer, Sergeant Brandt knew the 
risks and his family knew the risks. In spite of those risks, his wife 
Natasha sent him out to work each and every day because the community 
needs people with Sergeant Brandt's selflessness, his courage, and his 
integrity.
  So my thoughts today remain with Natasha Brandt and her four kids, 
who I hope will grow up to appreciate just how much of a hero and a 
role model their father was.
  My thoughts also remain with Brenda Riley, who ran out of the house 
in her robe and slippers to come to the aid of an officer in distress, 
and with Phil McBroom of the North Pole Police Department, who is 
Allen's best friend, who stood watch with him there at the hospital and 
who maintained vigil and then cared for Allen's children, along with 
his own four kids, as well as with all of the men and women in law 
enforcement.
  Once again, I join with my Senate colleagues in wishing Officer Salao 
a speedy recovery.

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