Injured Fargo police officer details recovery from July 14 shooting in city-produced video

Sep. 8—FARGO — Andrew Dotas said he can't wait to be a cop again and has been asking his doctors repeatedly when that can happen.

About a year, he's been told, as he continues to recover from his injuries

after he and two other Fargo police officers were shot while responding to a routine traffic crash in south Fargo on July 14.

Dotas' training recruit, 22-year-old Tyler Hawes, was also critically injured,

while Jake Wallin, 23, died in the shooting.

Officer Zachary Robinson, 31, shot and killed the gunman, 37-year-old

Mohamad Barakat.

Dotas, 28, said his work at the Police Department is not finished, even though people continually ask why he would go back after such a traumatic incident.

"I love smiling at them and saying, 'This is what I've always wanted to do. Why would I do anything different?' " he said in a recent video interview.

The Forum was not involved in the interview, which was conducted and edited into a 40-minute video by the city and released by the Fargo Police Department to local media outlets on Thursday, Sept. 7.

The department placed an embargo of 6 p.m. Thursday to allow media groups time to review and package the video content.

"This approach was chosen to share an impactful update with our community while also respecting Andrew's recovery and his family's privacy," the Police Department said in a news release.

The Forum and WDAY-TV, both owned by Forum Communications, decided to share the video and its contents due to public interest, but have pursued independent interviews with the officers involved.

WDAY asked to speak with the officers when they were able to after the shooting, but that request was not granted.

In response to a request for interviews by The Forum sent Thursday, city spokesperson Gregg Schildberger said the officers would not be available for media interviews at this time.

Fargo police said it would release similar videos from Hawes and Robinson in the near future.

In the interview, Dotas was accompanied by his wife, Hannah; they have a young son together.

Dotas talked about first waking up in the hospital after the shooting, and feeling safe to see Hannah in the room.

But he was also frantic about wanting to know how his training recruit, Hawes, was doing, and was able to use a whiteboard and marker to ask Hannah that question.

"His concern was not of himself. It was 'How is my recruit?' " she said.

Dotas also didn't know whether he could walk, at first.

There was no mention during the interview of how many bullets struck Dotas or where on his body he was hit.

Schildberger said that information wouldn't be released at this time.

Dotas was released from the hospital Aug. 5,

and

Hawes got out two days later.

Dotas said he was told walking can help improve the damage that happened to his lungs and other areas, so he's concentrating on being able to walk from his bed to a car in a couple weeks.

He thanked employees of Sanford Health, especially the first physician who treated him, critical care surgeon Dr. Enej Gasevic.

"He not only saved my life, but he saved a father, he saved a husband, he saved a son," Dotas said.

In the interview conducted by the city, Dotas did not speak about the circumstances of the shooting.

However, he did say neither he nor his wife has watched any of the police body camera footage from that day, portions of which have been released to the public.

"We don't need to see that evil. But what I'll say is there's a lot more good than evil," Dotas said.

After the shooting, investigators determined Barakat intended to inflict mass carnage at a public gathering that day, perhaps the Downtown Street Fair, before getting sidetracked while driving past the car crash and seeing the officers.

That was based on the amount of weapons, ammunition and explosives he had in his vehicle at the time, and on computer searches about the street fair and mass shootings.

Hannah Dotas said the family has received cards from people saying they or people they love were at the street fair that day.

"I truly believe that people are alive today because of what Andrew did and the place that Andrew stood in so that nobody else had to," she said.

Dotas said they might view the body cam video someday, but for now are hyperfocused on healing.

When strong enough, he'll start a job he'd been hired to do before he was shot — working as a school resource officer at Dakota High School, the alternative high school in Fargo.

He also hopes to return to the Red River Valley SWAT Negotiations Team, another position that was new for him.

The couple, married for about a year, said their relationship has grown leaps and bounds through this experience.

"We've told each other if we can get through this, we can truly get through anything," Dotas said.