Rapid City Man Seeks Public Service After Brother’s Death

RAPID CITY, S.D. (AP) — It was Aug. 2, 2011, and 20-year-old Mackenzie Armstrong was just finishing his shift as a wildland firefighter at Wind Cave National Park when he received a text message.

“It was from my dad,” Armstrong said Friday, his face blanching at the memory. “He said a shooting had taken place, and my brother was involved.”

As soon as he could get within cell tower range, he called his father, retired Pennington County Sheriff’s Deputy Bill Armstrong, who told Mackenzie that his oldest brother, Nick, a Rapid City police officer, had been shot.

As he raced from Hot Springs to Rapid City Regional Hospital, Mackenzie was optimistic.

“I remember thinking, ‘He’ll be OK,'” Mackenzie recalled. “He’s the best cop around.”

Four days after being shot during what started as a routine traffic stop on East Anamosa Street, Officer Nick Armstrong died. He was 27.

Also killed in the shootout were Officer Ryan McCandless and the shooter, Daniel Tiger, 22. In one of the darkest hours in the history of the Rapid City Police Department, a third police officer, Tim Doyle, was wounded, as was an entire community.

“Nick put his heart into this community, and it didn’t matter who you were, what status you held, he treated everyone the same,” Mackenzie said, his eyes watering with the memories of a brother he dearly loved. “Ultimately, he lost his life doing just that.”

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Earlier this month, almost four years after burying his brother, Mackenzie smiled as his father stepped forward, pinned a police badge on his uniform and shook his hand, the first step toward 17 weeks of training that will lead to Mackenzie’s eventual deployment with the Rapid City Police Department.

While following in the law enforcement footsteps of his dad and brother, “Mac” to his friends, said his brother’s tragic death was not the sole reason he decided to join the force. In fact, he said he had been toying with the idea since he was in preschool, the Rapid City Tribune ( ) reported.

The idea of adopting a profession dedicated to community service is deeply ingrained in the Armstrong family’s psyche, he explained. His father was a 21-year sheriff’s deputy, while his mother, Kim, trained search and rescue dogs, an effort the entire family eventually participated in.

“We’re all animal lovers, and we’re all about helping others. It’s how we were raised,” Mackenzie said. “And, it was good reason to get out of the house, go out together on those beautiful days, and work with others.”

So, he said it felt natural to him when he graduated from Stevens High School in 2010, then enrolled at the Billings campus of Montana State University, initially intent on earning a degree in outdoor adventure leadership. But after a semester, he switched to becoming a paramedic.

“Since preschool I had always bounced back and forth between being an EMT (emergency medical technician) or a police officer,” said Mackenzie, who served as a police cadet for four years while in high school. “I had just started my second year when the shooting happened.”

A brother-to-brother talk that summer would alter his professional aspirations.

“About a week prior to the shooting, my brother and I had a conversation in the car about me going into law enforcement,” Mackenzie said. “In the end, he ultimately said he was 100 percent supportive of me. He kind of gave me the final approval.”

Mackenzie’s father didn’t share that sentiment.

“He said, ‘Go be a fireman,'” Mackenzie said. “I laughed because I know he’s also totally supportive.”

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By the fall of 2011, Mackenzie was taking online classes with MSU, paramedic classes at Western Dakota Technical Institute, and attending criminal justice classes at the University Center in Rapid City. But, recognizing his own desires and acknowledging that the law enforcement community had become his “second family” in the wake of his brother’s shooting, he knew which direction he’d take.

“My heart was set in law enforcement,” he said. After talking to Steve Allender, former Rapid City police chief and now mayor, and current Police Chief Karl Jegeris, Mackenzie said they came to an understanding.

“I wanted to make sure they didn’t hire me for what my last name is, but for who I am,” the rookie officer said. “I wanted to be held to the same standards as everyone else. At the same time, they wanted to make sure I was ready to assume this role.

“As Chief Jegeris put it, ‘The stars aligned.'”

A press release last week said Mackenzie had served the department as a community service officer. According to the department’s website, a community service officer is a non-sworn officer who assists the patrol division.

“We are very honored to have Mackenzie Armstrong join the Rapid City Police Department as a sworn officer,” Jegeris said last week in an email. “While nothing can bring Nick Armstrong back, this next chapter brings a sense of healing to the department. We know that a large part of Mackenzie’s motivation is to represent his brother’s values of service to those who are less fortunate.

“As brothers, they shared a wholesome upbringing that ensured service to the community before self, and the citizens of Rapid City should feel honored that this type of motivation exists among the officers of the RCPD that serve them every day.”

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Allender was police chief in 2011 when three of his officers were felled by gunshots in the front yard of a church in North Rapid. It’s something he still thinks about every day. He has known Mac Armstrong for years and readily admits that the young man’s desire to join the police ranks has made him “feel uneasy with the whole situation.”

“In the weeks and months following the 2011 shooting, I had several meetings with Bill and Kim Armstrong,” Allender recalled on Friday. “Eventually the subject came up. To summarize our conversations, Mac’s father, Bill, asked me to promise that we would not hire Mac until we believed he was ready and fully capable to perform the job.”

Mackenzie has said his brother’s death caused him to “grow up,” and over the past four years he has taken it upon himself to serve as the family spokesman, shielding his parents from press inquiries and relieving them of the need to relive their son’s death with each succeeding anniversary. That maturation has not gone unnoticed by Allender.

“Ultimately, Mac went through a period of rapid growth following the death of his brother and has become a man we can all be proud of,” Allender said. “I am fully confident that Mac Armstrong is fully capable and prepared to be a Rapid City Police officer. That doesn’t mean I won’t spend a moment here or there wondering or worrying about him, but it does mean that I won’t spend any time unnecessarily worrying.”

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Even as he retraces the steps of his big brother and begins learning skills and techniques demanded of any law enforcement officer today, Mackenzie understands he must stand on his own, master his profession and move forward in the wake of his family’s loss.

“I just want to be the best officer I can possibly be,” he said Friday during a break in training. “I want to prepare myself for the real world, for any situation that comes upon us as officers.

“I just know in my mind I want to go out there and treat people with respect and help people, whether it’s keeping an intoxicated person from freezing to death at night or assisting a grieving family that lost a loved one, because I know something of that.”

And, how does Mackenzie think his brother would have reacted to his decision to pursue a career in law enforcement?

“He’d be proud that I followed my heart and that I followed my dream.”

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Information from: Rapid City Journal,