A former police officer who was involved in at least four deadly shootings and profanely described himself as having been a "savage" was hired by the Department of Homeland Security to train immigration enforcement agents in firearms and other tactics, according to a report by Wired.
Contract and Background
David Norman, founder and owner of TruKinetics LLC in Gilbert, Arizona, received a $27,748 government contract in 2024, four years after retiring as a police officer in Phoenix. During his time as a cop, Norman opened fire on armed suspects six times, killing four people and wounding two others, records reviewed by Wired show.
Following his retirement, he told The Modern Cop podcast in 2021 that he had been a "f****** savage," saying, "I wanted those experiences. I was super aggressive."
Training for Homeland Security Investigations
Norman told Wired that his company conducted training sessions in Arizona and Fort Benning, Georgia, for members of Homeland Security Investigations' Special Response Team based in Arizona. "They're top dudes, and it was an honor to work with them," he said.
Members of DHS SRTs, which are similar to police SWAT teams, have been implicated in the fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti during protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations in Minneapolis earlier this year. Both killings drew national attention during aggressive deportation efforts by Donald Trump's team. Norman said TruKinetics did not train agents on crowd control or active shooters but declined to elaborate, according to Wired. "It sounds like you're one of those dudes trying to do a hit piece on HSI," he reportedly said.
SRT Operations and Training
Homeland Security Investigations is an arm of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. According to a 2005 handbook, Special Response Teams were created to "conduct high-risk enforcement operations" with a "greater than normal probability of injury or death to the law enforcement officer or the person(s) being arrested." Teams are supposed to carry out their operations "safely, professionally and in a manner that maximizes officer and public safety," the handbook says. Their training includes three weeks at the Army's Fort Benning, including "officer mindset" and highly realistic "force-on-force sessions," according to ICE.
Legal and Ethical Concerns
Norman acknowledged his involvement in the four fatal shootings during a 2021 deposition tied to a lawsuit over the death of a suspect in an attempted restaurant robbery, according to Wired. He was cleared of wrongdoing in all shootings, and the lawsuit was dismissed. Norman told Wired that the dead man's family "was looking for a payout and the judge saw through that."
Phoenix-based civil rights lawyer Steve Benedetto, who represented the family, described Norman's police unit as a "group of plainclothes cowboys" who watched suspect Jacob Harris and several companions commit a holdup before engaging in high-speed pursuit. "Norman stood out to me as especially aggressive," Benedetto told Wired. "He's the last guy on earth who should be training a tactical team."
DOJ Findings and Criticism
In 2024, the Justice Department faulted the Phoenix Police Department for a "pattern or practice" of unconstitutional conduct, including unjustified deadly force in shootings from January 2019 to December 2022, and had "trained its officers that all force — even deadly force — is de-escalation." Last year, the Trump administration closed the case and rescinded the DOJ's findings.
John Sandweg, former acting ICE director under President Barack Obama, was critical of the Trump administration's use of Special Response Team members for roving migrant patrols that can lead to clashes with demonstrators. "The general idea of SRTs is that they'd be used against people who posed a significant risk to public safety: those with a violent criminal history, gang association or other factors that would be the objective basis for an elevated risk assessment," Sandweg told Wired. "What are we doing deploying them to deal with protesters? It's a recipe for disaster."
