“I remember him as a small boy with his little arms wrapped so tightly around my neck, burying his face into me to try to avoid the fireworks that he hated so much at that age,” she said. Wallin had recently purchased a house for himself and his fiancée, and “was so proud of becoming a new homeowner that he ran right out and bought himself a lawnmower and mowed his new lawn,” his aunt said. “His actions were valorous and exemplify the highest standards of the policing profession.”Īunt Jodi Wallin recounted her nephew as “the little boy I adored who grew into the young man I admired and was oh so proud of.” “His final act of valor was to selflessly face the shooter and attempt to neutralize him to save others,” Zibolski said. The chief shared that body-camera footage of the shooting showed Wallin “hurried to create distance, intuitively” after his fellow officers were hit, pulled his gun out and was taking aim at the gunman when he was fatally struck. He received final military honors at a private interment. Wallin previously served in the Minnesota Army National Guard and was deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq from November 2020 to July 2021, according to a spokesperson for the Minnesota National Guard. Dozens of people were at the memorial honoring Wallin at the site of the shooting as the procession went past, KFGO reported. The police procession of 10 squad cars and three buses carrying department employees left Fargo early Saturday for Pequot Lakes. On Saturday, the Fargo Police Department escorted his cremains to Pequot Lakes, Minnesota, for his funeral service, which was attended by loved ones, dignitaries and law enforcement agencies from across the country. Wallin, who had been sworn in as a Fargo police officer in April and was still in field training, was cremated in his uniform. Police said the actions of the fourth officer likely spared the city a bigger, bloodier attack. Two other officers and a civilian were wounded before a fourth officer returned fire, killing gunman Mohamad Barakat. Wallin, 23, was killed July 14 when a man armed with 1,800 rounds of ammunition, multiple guns and explosives ambushed officers responding to a routine traffic crash. On Saturday, the Fargo police officer was remembered for growing up to be a military veteran and dedicated officer whose “final act of valor” was staring down the face of a man intent on bloodshed. Jake Wallin was once a small boy who sought comfort in the arms of family, terrified of fireworks that lit up the sky.
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