1/2 DPS remembers fallen Trooper, 43-year-old Douglas Knutson, who was killed on this date in 1998. Knutson was a motorcycle officer who was hit from behind by a vehicle driven by 22-year-old Brett Baxter of Tempe. Knutson was standing on the side of the Loop-202 waiting for a tow truck to remove an abandoned vehicle. He was the first DPS motorcycle officer killed in the line of duty in Arizona. Baxter was not charged in the case.
