Family Of Shootout Victims To Visit Boise Parents, Uncle Hope To Find Out What Sparked Gunbattle That Left Brothers, Officer Dead
The family of two former Pennsylvania men killed in an Idaho police shootout last weekend wants some answers about what happened.
Martin and Patty Brodrick of Brush Valley, 10 miles southeast of Indiana, Pa., plan to head to Boise to learn more about why Craig, 30, and Doug, 27, were killed in a shootout with police after a routine traffic stop.
An ad ran in The Idaho Statesman during the week, saying the victims’ uncle and parents would be in Boise seeking information on the incident. A private investigator said he was volunteering his time to help the family gather information.
The Brodrick brothers were pulled over by Boise police about 1:20 a.m. Sept. 20 for failing to signal a turn. When the brothers reportedly refused to cooperate with police, several officers arrived as backup, and gunfire erupted. One officer has said he may have fired a split second before Craig Brodrick reached for a handgun. Other officers maintained Brodrick fired first.
The exchange left the two Brodrick brothers and Officer Mark Stall dead. Stall was buried on Wednesday amid a huge outpouring of emotion and support from thousands of police officers and other citizens.
A metal cross was quickly erected at the site of the shootout - the parking lot of a tavern frequented by motorcyclists - as a memorial to Stall.
As happened when Princess Diana died, but on a much smaller scale, numerous flowers, gifts, poems and other tokens have been dropped at the site, along with candlelight vigils.
Fund-raising events for the officer’s wife and two small daughters were planned Saturday night.
A few feet away, attempts to remember the Brodrick brothers with crosses have been repeatedly vandalized. The brothers’ supporters have rebuilt the smaller crosses several times, only to see them broken and thrown into a nearby garbage container. Someone even dumped cow manure on the spot where the brothers’ memorial was.
Stall’s father and father-in-law appealed to the community late Friday to stop the vandalism.
“We are disheartened by the controversy that now surrounds the site of last Saturday morning’s incident,” the Rev. Arnold Rubey, Stall’s father-in-law, read from a prepared statement. “In light of this, we are asking the public to please conduct yourselves in a manner that would best facilitate the peace that Mark gave his life to uphold.”
Rubey said people could best honor Stall’s memory “by spending time with your families and worshipping at a local church. In closing, it is our desire that you would pray for each of the families involved in this tragic situation.”