Slain Fargo Officer Almost Shot Muslim Terrorist

Ambushed and outgunned, he still went down fighting.

In my most recent article on Mohamad Barakat’s terrorist attack in Fargo, I noted the heroism of the fourth officer after the Muslim terrorist had ambushed three of his colleagues.

The Muslim terrorist raised his rifle and shot through the open car window of his gray sedan, ambushing three Fargo police officers, shooting and killing Officer Jake Wallin, an Afghanistan and Iraq war vet who had recently joined the force, and wounding Officer Andrew Dotas and Officer Tyler Hawes. Dotas and Hawes were saved by their flak jackets and by the courageous firefighters on the scene who stayed under cover while Mohamad shot at them, but then rushed to help the wounded officers and kept them alive until they could be brought to a hospital.

And then Mohamad ran into trouble.

While the three officers he had shot had not even gotten a chance to draw a gun, Officer Zach Robinson did not go down and he returned fire. With Mohamad’s .223 caliber rifle pitted against the officer’s 9mm handgun, Officer Robinson still managed to “incapacitate” the Muslim terrorist’s weapon. The Muslim terrorist had burned through most of the 60 rounds in his double stacked mag while the officer had managed to draw his fire, reload and keep him occupied.

Then one of his shots disabled the Muslim terrorist’s rifle from 75 feet away. With his primary weapon gone, Mohamad grabbed a handgun and tried to continue the fight, and was shot dead.

But it turns out that’s not correct. Officer Jake Wallin who was shot and killed managed to come close to firing off a shot at Mohamad.

The 23-year-old officer was the first of three to be shot by Barakat as they processed the scene of a routine traffic crash on 25th Street and Ninth Avenue South.

Wrigley said that’s because Wallin was closer to Barakat’s vehicle parked in a business complex parking lot just west of the crash site, a step-and-a-half in front of the other two officers.

Wallin’s knees appear to buckle as if he were going down, Wrigley said.

But when BCI Chief Agent Casey Miller and others were able to get Wallin’s body cam footage downloaded, they saw something different, Wrigley said.

Wallin wasn’t falling but was lunging to the side, tossing a tablet from his right hand to his left hand in one swoop, then pulling out his service weapon in an effort to get off a shot.

This is the quality of the men we are still fortunate to have watching our backs. For every Uvalde, there are people like Officer Jake Wallin who, ambushed and outgunned, still went down fighting.