Jeanne Sexton-Brown

On Sunday, November 9 Fargo Police Officer Andrew Dotas and his wife, Hannah spoke at the Anselm Trinity Lutheran Church southwest of Sheldon.

Officer Dotas was one of the Fargo Officers ambushed on Friday, July 14, 2023 on 25th St. South in Fargo. He and his wife Hannah shared their story. Officer Dotas is a nine-year veteran of the Fargo Police Force.

Officer Dotas opened in prayer stating he wanted to give full honor to Christ for the miracles that happened that day in 2023.

Officer Jake Wallin was killed that day. Officer Dotas was shot multiple times, had to have nine surgeries and spent 18 months recovering from his life-threatening injuries. Officer Ty Hawes was shot several times as well, sustaining critical life-threatening injuries which required 19 surgeries and 18 months of recovery. Officer Zach Robinson was able to end the ambush by taking out the shooter after attempting to get him to surrender.

Both Andrew and Hannah Dotas grew up in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. They place Christ at the center of all that happened that day.

“He never left our side,” said Officer Dotas. “Hannah was also by my side through every step of my recovery process.”

Officer Dotas always wanted to be a police officer and was even in the Police Explorers at age 14. He joined the Fargo Police Force in 2016 with the intent of getting some experience before heading back to the Twin Cities. However, they both fell in love with North Dakota and have no intentions of leaving.

“I want to use my story as credibility,” said Officer Dotas. “Because of my experience I can truly say, Christ was with me. Everybody’s struggle is the same to Christ.”

The morning of Friday, July 14, he had shadowed the previous SRO at Dakota High School in preparation for his new assignment as the school resource officer.

“I still had the school key in my pocket when I was shot,” said Officer Dotas.

Just before the shooting, Officer Dotas had called his wife and told her he would be home in a couple of hours. He told her to get in her swimsuit and take their son to the pool; he would join them shortly.

The call came in of a traffic accident. Officer Dotas was the training officer for Officer Hawes who had just graduated from the police academy in April with Officer Wallin. As training goes, the two officers, Hawes and Dotas, were riding together. Officer Hawes was taking the lead at the accident.

“When there is an injury accident, we call for the fire departments and ambulance,” said Officer Dotas. “It turned out to be a minor injury to one of the drivers involved. I had just released the fire departments and ambulance to leave the scene.”

He had told Officer Hawes and Officer Wallin the plan to move forward with the investigation just prior to shots ringing out.

“I had been deployed in Afghanistan, I knew the sound of automatic gunfire,” said Officer Dotas. “The gunman had a high-powered assault rifle that was equipped with a binary trigger.”
Officer Dotas took two shots to the hip, with one shot jamming his gun in his holster. He was unable to draw his weapon.

“Police officers are trained to respond on instinct,” said Officer Dotas. “Soldiers are trained to respond on instinct. A year before the ambush, I had returned from deployment in Afghanistan with the Air National Guard. That time allowed me to know and understand automatic gunfire and the reality of when that does occur.”
“Nine miracles happened that day,” said Office Dotas. “The first was that fire and ambulance were on scene for an injury accident.”

He went on to innumerate the miracles.

Second, six people were on scene for what was a minor accident. Officer Dotas was shot several times. Officer Hawes was shot multiple times as well. Jake Wallin was able to get shots off to draw fire before he was hit and died from his injuries.

Third was that the first two shots jammed my weapon in my holster but it also stopped a bullet from hitting vital organs.

Fourth was that just two weeks prior to the incident, the department issued rifle rated plates to insert in their vests which saved his life.

Fifth, he was seconds from bleeding out when his brain shut off. He couldn’t get his gun out. Later, when Officer Dotas and Hannah finally decided to watch his body camera footage, they heard Officer Dotas utter the words, “God help me!”

“I didn’t know I said that,” recalled Officer Dotas. “We do what we are trained to do.”

Officer Dotas credits his parents for taking him to church. Pushing him to go to youth group when he would try to get out of it. The foundation of faith was there and when the need was there, he remembered to call out to

God for help.

Sixth, the Fargo Street Fair was going on in downtown Fargo. They believe the shooter was planning to hit the Street Fair as he had searched online for high density shootings. The shooter had 1,900 rounds of ammo; four bombs; as well as machineguns.

The shooter was not involved in the accident. He was seen driving around the accident, viewing the number of officers on scene.

When the shots started and they realized it was multiple injuries, one of the officers called for dispatch to send everyone.

“What would be better than drawing all officers away from the Street Fair to leave that area of the city unprotected, which is what happened.

Seven was the serious nature of Officer Dotas’ injuries. His stomach cut in half, all the contents of his stomach emptied into his chest cavity. His doctors had no idea what to do with that.

“It is something to look at your doctors and they have no idea how to deal with your chest cavity full of the contents of your stomach,” said Officer Dotas. “It was a miracle that I could survive that.”

His stomach was cut in half, his spleen was shot into so many pieces and the lower part of his lung was shot off.
“The doctor told me they took out my spleen,” said Officer Dotas. “I asked him why? He said, ‘It was in a dozen pieces, do you want me to put it back?’ Um, no, that’s okay.”

Officer Dotas’ good friend at the PD called Hannah to give her the notification. ‘Andrew’s been shot, get to the hospital now’!

He told another officer in the ambulance, ‘Take care of Hannah and AJ (their son).’

Hannah was rushed into a consult room where she waited for two hours while her husband was in surgery.
“They told me he was not awake but he was alive,” recalled Hannah. “I prayed, ‘God, don’t take my husband,’ but then I realized, Andrew is not mine, he is God’s. I changed my prayer to, ‘If he is called home, give me strength to carry on’.”

Hannah went into counseling right away.

“I realized that fear and anxiety is not of God,” said Hannah. “I had to trust the Lord to care for him. I see the miracle of Andrew back to work.”

Officer Dotas stated that being a police officer was a dream job but he is much more than that.

“I’m a son of God; I’m a husband; I’m a father,” said Dotas. “If the stress of my job causes my family harm, I would leave the force. But God has protected them and they are not having any anxiety with me staying on the force.”
One of the other miracles is the fact that God has protected him from any flashbacks, even though he can list all of the organs he lost.

Once he was discharged, they had to move a hospital bed into the living room of their apartment. Their son AJ was two-years-old at the time.

“He was so very careful around his daddy’s tummy,” remembered Hannah. “There was no room in the apartment with the hospital bed set up in the living room. AJ went to the cities to stay with his grandparents for a couple of months during that time of recovery.”

He worked on his physical agility. When he was tested to come back to work, he ran faster than anyone else in the department of 180 officers.

Officer Dotas learned while still in the hospital that he had in fact met the shooter four months before the ambush.

The Dotas family has grown with the recent birth of their daughter Savannah, two months ago.
“I’m a soldier; I’m a police officer; I can protect my family,” said Officer Dotas. “But as a Christian.”
Both Hannah and Officer Dotas have forgiven the shooter.

“We are to forgive as Christ has forgiven us,” said Hannah. “Every time I think of the shooting, I forgive him again.”

“He was very broken,” said Officer Dotas. “I can forgive him for that. It wasn’t easy to do, but as Christians, we need to forgive. I don’t live in fear. We live in a fallen world. Two percent of the people are bad. Police are in it to make a difference. The thin blue line stands between good and evil.”

Both Hannah and Officer Dotas feel supported, that is why he is still a police officer.

During his deployment in Afghanistan, he served with the Phoenix Ravens, a select group of highly trained security forces Airmen tasked with protecting US Aircraft and aircrew when missions take them to hostile environments.

He is still a proud member of the Air National Guard. He is also on the peer support team, the Red River Valley SWAT (Special Weapons and Tactics) negotiations team.

Officer Dotas’ favorite scripture? Matthew 25:23 “Well done, good and faithful servant!”