Lawyers plead not guilty for suspect in DPS trooper’s fatal shooting

PHOENIX – Attorneys for a young man charged with the fatal freeway shooting of an Arizona state trooper entered a not guilty plea on his behalf Thursday in a Phoenix court.

Isaac King, 20, was charged with the first-degree murder of trooper Tyler Edenhofer during a late-night struggle along Interstate 10 in Avondale
on July 25.

Edenhofer, 24, and Trooper Dalin Dorris, were shot, the Department of Public Safety said, after King managed to get hold of a third patrol officer’s gun.

Authorities said officers grappled with King, who lives in Avondale, for several minutes before he fired two shots from Sean Rodecap’s service weapon.

The fighting lasted eight minutes. Goodyear Police officers also assisted.

Dorris was wounded in the shoulder.

Edehofer, who had graduated from the DPS academy in the spring, was finishing his last week of field training and was riding with Rodecap. They had responded to a call about someone throwing objects onto a stretch of the freeway in Avondale.

DPS Director Col. Frank Milstead said that King had a history of mental health issues and had been taking medication for anxiety and depression. He did not have a criminal history.

After the shooting, King was taken to a hospital for treatment of his injuries. He was placed in a medically induced coma for at least a day.

Milstead told KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Bruce St. James and Pamela Hughes last month that while they were unsure how King got to the weapon, ““We don’t see that anything was done incorrectly at this point.”

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