Behind the Badge
On Tuesday, during an emotional news conference, a motorist who saved the life of an Arizona Department of Public Safety trooper spoke publicly about the incident for the first time.
It was in the early morning hours of Jan. 12 when Arizona Department of Public Safety Trooper Ed Andersson was attacked on Interstate 10 west of Phoenix.
Andersson, a 27-year veteran of the department, stopped to assist at the scene of a roll-over accident when he was attacked by Lenoard Penuelas-Escobar. Penuelas-Escobar shot Andersson in the shoulder and chest.
By the time Thomas Yoxall pulled over, Penuelas-Escobar had viciously beaten the trooper.
Yoxall ordered Penuelas-Escobar to stop. When he didn’t comply, and fearing for the trooper’s life, Yoxall shot and killed the suspect.
Yoxall is a licensed concealed carry gun owner in Arizona.
During the news conference, Col. Frank Milstead credited Yoxall for saving Andersson’s life, introducing him as “our hero.”
Asked if would do it again, Yoxall said: “I wouldn’t change it…because another man got to go home to his family.”
