GVSU uses Zapata case to teach recruits

ALLENDALE, Mich. (WOOD) - Recruits at the Grand Valley State University Police Academy are trying to learn what it takes to be a cop, and sometimes that means learning about officers who have lost their lives in the line of duty.

"We've got situations we can point to locally," GVSU Police Academy director Julie Yunker said about how instructors use local incidents in the classroom. "This is why we're telling you 'do this.'"

On Tuesday, police released their full investigation in the death of Kalamazoo Public Safety Officer Eric Zapata.

Zapata was backing up another officer in April 2011 during a 'shots fired' call. The suspect, Leonard 'Danny' Statler, shot and killed Zapata and then turned the gun on himself.
 
"With every tragedy, there has to be something good that comes with it, or there would be no reason to survive a tragedy," said Yunker, who spent 13 years as a KDPS officer.

The recruits at the academy -- three weeks into their 16-week training -- are taught there is no such thing as routine. For evidence, they need look no further than the circumstances of Zapata's death.

Yunker commended the other officer in last April's incident, John Schipper. Schipper got into a gun fight with Statler after the suspect pulled a handgun before grabbing a rifle.

Yunker applauded Schipper's consistent communication with dispatchers and fellow officers.

"To be under the pressure that Officer Schipper was under and to provide that information was really outstanding," Yunker said.

Yunker added that things out of both officers' control added up to the deadly encounter.

"It just had to be that the suspect ran down that driveway toward the alley. It had to be that Eric (Zapata) jumped the wooden fence in that exact area, instead of two houses down," she said.

For the recruits learning in the classroom, like Walker's Brian Tucker, local instances reflect the dangerous reality of the job.

"I think anytime a police officer dies, it makes it more real," Tucker told 24 Hour News 8 as he pointed to a classroom wall that lists recent officer deaths.

"It really gets your emotions going a little bit when you think about the people that give their lives," Tucker said.
 
KDPS's investigation cleared the officers that night and said they acted with courage.