Arizona Department of Public Safety, Arizona
End of Watch: Monday, May 6, 2013
Age: 47
Tour of Duty: 14 years
Badge Number: 5430
Cause of Death: Automobile crash
Date of Incident: May 6, 2013
Weapon Used: Automobile; Commercial
Suspect Info: Sentenced to 6 years
Officer Tim Huffman was killed when his patrol car was struck by a tractor-trailer on I-8 near Dateland, Arizona, at approximately 5:00 pm.
He and other officers were attempting to shut down a lane of traffic while investigating an earlier accident. Officer Huffman was sitting in his patrol car writing a report as another officer attempted to shut down a lane of traffic to clear a lane for fire department vehicles. The tractor-trailer failed to yield to the officer, who was waving traffic over, and struck the back of Officer Huffman's patrol car at full speed, pushing it into two other patrol cars, a fire department vehicle, and a civilian vehicle.
Officer Huffman succumbed to his injuries at the scene. The driver was convicted of first-degree murder and, on July 8th, 2015, was sentenced to six years in prison.
Officer Huffman was an Arizona Army National Guard veteran and had served with the Arizona Department of Public Safety for 14 years.