Police Officer Philip N. Trust

Philip N. Trust

Officer Philip Trust and Officer Dennis Doty were shot and killed while serving a warrant at a home.

They were attempting to arrest a handicapped man who was sitting naked on a bed. As they helped him get dressed, the suspect pulled out a handgun and shot both officers. The suspect had been sitting on the gun. Officer Trust was able to return fire and struck the suspect in the hand.

The round remained in the suspect's hand and was a crucial piece of evidence in the ensuing trial. The suspect, 43, who had been paralyzed from the waist down two years earlier in a shootout with another Riverside police officer, was found guilty of their murders and sentenced to death. It is believed that the motive of the shooting was revenge over the previous shooting.

In 2005 a judge overturned the suspect's death sentence due to claims by the defense that the suspect suffered from schizophrenic. He was retried and again sentenced to death on January 28th, 2010. On December 3, 2022, now 84, he was still on death row. He is California's second oldest death row inmate. The oldest is 88.

Officer Trust was a Vietnam War veteran and had served with the Riverside Police Department for 10 years. He was survived by his wife and four children.