Tributes Pouring In For Fallen Euless Officer

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EULESS (CBSDFW.COM) - Tributes continue to pour in for Euless Police Officer David Hofer, killed in the line of duty on Tuesday, March 1.

"He was witty. He was goofy. He was quirky. He was strong," says Officer Brian Rozanski, of the New York Police Department's 9th precinct. "He was sharp. He was funny."

Friends of Officer Hofer insist that one word would never do his life justice so they have many.  Just as it is impossible, they say, to describe their grief now.

"My world was turned upside down," says Rozanski, recalling learning of the officer's death Tuesday evening. He was on a flight to North Texas the very next morning.

Officer Rozanski often partnered with Hofer at the 9th precinct—and remembers him as the first officer there to make him feel welcomed when he arrived.

"I don't know how long it took. But, it felt like in two minutes we were seeing faces of police officers that we had worked with… guys that were right in a precinct, crying with each other…trying to make sense of it all."

Officer Hofer worked in New York for five years before moving to Euless in 2014. Friends say he wanted a change from big city policing—and was drawn to the slow pace and open spaces synonymous with Texas. He says they were both aware of the danger attached to their chosen careers—but he says Officer Hofer also managed to make it fun.

"I laughed so much with him," says Rozanski.  "Everyone that we've worked with laughed so much with him! And when situations arose, he was serious, he was game faced. He was ready to roll and he was on top of his game."

Rozanski calls Hofer a "cop's cop" who loved his family: and was looking forward to starting his own with fiancee, Marta.

"He loved Marta… that was the love of his life, they were perfect together. That was his girl."

The couple recently purchased a home in Plano. Friends say Officer Hofer was loving life in North Texas so much that he had convinced several officers to follow him to the area. That those colleagues will now gather to mourn him, he says, still seems unreal.

"I'm just waiting for him to come around the bush with a case of beer and a goofy voice saying 'hey brother! What are you doing here?', " says Rozanski. "He was a great guy.  He was a great cop and he was a great friend."

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