P.P.O. Daniel Doffyn #14030

Police Officer Daniel J. Doffyn was shot and killed when he surprised burglary suspects at an apartment complex.

At 3:30 in the afternoon, Dan Doffyn and other officers were heading for their squad cars at the Austin District police station. They were about to begin their shift when they heard a radio report of a burglary in progress at a three-story, 15-unit apartment building directly across the street from the police station. A number of officers rushed to the scene, including Dan Doffyn.

They arrived to the sound of breaking glass. This alerted the officers to an escape attempt out an apartment window. Officer Doffyn ran to a gangway alongside the building and caught one of the suspects just as he was coming out the window. He was preparing to make the arrest when a second suspect, who took aim at the officer with a Tec-9 automatic handgun and fired, surprised him. Officer Doffyn was hit twice in areas not covered by his bulletproof vest. He died five hours later during surgery at Cook County Hospital.

Another officer was also shot during the gun battle, but despite a serious leg injury, he was still able to fire his weapon and critically wound the shooter. When the shooting had stopped, three suspects were in custody; all gang members with extensive criminal records.

Approximately 20 minutes before the shootout with police, the three suspects shot and injured a rival gang member. They fled to the apartment of one of the suspect's girlfriends. She was not home at the time and they broke in. Another tenant in the building called police to report the burglary. Fearing that police were chasing them for the earlier shooting, one of the suspects reportedly ordered his cohorts to go "at it till the end," and they obliged.

The shooter was sentenced to death, but that conviction was overturned by then-Governor George H. Ryan who issued a moratorium on the death penalty and emptied the state’s death row by commuting the sentences of 167 inmates to life in prison.

On October 17, 2003, the Illinois Supreme Court ordered new trials for two men convicted of killing Officer Doffyn, because the prosecution displayed the bloodstained uniform of Officer Daniel Doffyn. The court applied a similar reasoning in their decision that threw out the convictions of two who were sentenced to life in prison for their roles in Doffyn’s shooting.

Police Officer Daniel Doffyn was on the force for 8 months. He is survived by his 8-year-old daughter and his parents.
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Officer Doffyn is buried at Rosehill Cemetery in Chicago IL.

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All Three suspects in connection to Officer Doffyn were convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison.
for complete case details visit this website below:

http://law.justia.com/cases/illinois/court-of-appeals-first-appellate-di...
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This incident became a landmark case as evidence against high powered ammunition being sold to the general public. President Clinton was instrumental in changing gun laws, with regards to ownership and procedural modifications, to ensure these type of heinous crimes are prevented. This case also lead to modifications to police departments around the country with regards to armored protection of their officers on duty.

Clinton's notion that the current "armor-piercing ammunition" law, enacted in 1986 and added to in 1994, is too weak because "clever people" have designed new ammunition with additional armor piercing abilities, is sheer nonsense, as definitively demonstrated by the recent, nationally-broadcast expose of the "Black Rhino" hoax swallowed hook-line-and-sinker by anti-gun politicians and their allies in the media. Indeed, Officer Daniel Doffyn, whose death Clinton is shamelessly trying to use for his own political purposes, was not killed because a bullet penetrated his protective vest. According to a Chicago Police Department spokesman, one of the bullets that killed Officer Doffyn struck him in the head, while a second bullet entered an opening in his vest -- it didn't defeat the material of the vest.

President Clinton is attempting to resurrect an approach to banning ammunition that the Congress considered and rejected in the mid-1980s when it enacted the first "armor piercing ammunition" law. The previously-rejected approach proposed today by the president, would ban virtually all commonly used rifle ammunition, and a great deal of handgun ammunition, commonly used by law- abiding hunters and target shooters, and by people who own firearms for self-defense against criminals.

In 1986, Congress adopted the approach that Clinton now criticizes, an approach that the original sponsor of the "armor piercing" ammunition legislation, Rep. Mario Biaggi, a highly decorated police officer who had been wounded in the line of duty, said "was no compromise on the part of police safety."

▪Clinton's approach would ban virtually all rifle ammunition used for hunting, target shooting, or self-protection in the United States, such as .30-30 Winchester, .30-'06 Springfield, .308 Winchester, .300 Savage, 7mm Remington, .270 Winchester, .257 Roberts, .243 Winchester and .223 Remington, to name just a few.

▪Clinton's approach would ban most handgun ammunition, including that which is used for hunting, target shooting and self- protection, such as .45 Colt and Auto Colt, .44 Remington, .44 Smith and Wesson Special, .41 Remington, .357 Smith and Wesson, 9mm Luger, and many .38 Special loads, to name just a few.
▪About the only ammunition that would not be banned is .22 Rimfire ammunition, several outdated rifle cartridges, such as .25-20 Winchester and .32-20 Winchester, and several lower-powered handgun cartridges, such as .25 and .32 caliber (which anti-gun activists have for years claimed, albeit incorrectly, that criminals favor.)

▪The real problem is the criminal. During the last ten years, 73% of those involved in officer killings had prior criminal arrests, 56% had been convicted of criminal offenses, and 23% were actually on parole or probation when the officers were killed. (Source: FBI, "Law Enforcement Officer Killed and Assaulted, 1993")

▪The problem is not bullets that defeat the protective material of body armor vests. During the last ten years, 70% of the police officers who have been fatally shot were not even wearing their protective vests, according to the FBI. In fact, less than 2% of the officers feloniously killed in the line of duty during the last ten years were killed because a bullet penetrated their protective vests. A police officer is 30 times more likely to die in a motor vehicle accident than be killed because of a bullet penetrating his or her vest. (Source: FBI, "Law Enforcement Officer Killed and Assaulted, 1993")

The National Institute of Justice has found that "many (officers) who possess body armor do not use it routinely." ("Selection and Application Guide to Police Body Armor, 1989")

(NRA-ILA Research and Information Division, July 7, 1995)