SEDONA -- Friends are remembering an Arizona Department of Public Safety officer who was killed in Sedona Monday afternoon while rescuing two stranded hikers.
The victim is identified as Bruce Harrolle, 36, of Mesa, who has been with DPS for nine years, both as an officer and a medic.
A DPS Air Rescue Ranger Helicopter based in Flagstaff responded to a request from the Sedona Fire Department and the Yavapai County Sheriff's Office to help the dehydrated hikers stuck on Bear Mountain.
As Harrolle was escorting one of the patients into the chopper, he was struck by one of the helicopter's rotor blades and fatally injured, DPS Lt. James Warriner said.
"The pilot had to leave the medic up there because he could not make a full landing and shut down the helicopter," Warriner said.
The pilot flew the hikers to safety. A rescue team rushed up the mountain to check on Harrolle, Warriner said.
DPS officials said its investigators and the Yavapai County Sheriff's Office will investigate Harrolle's death. The National Transportation Safety Board will also head to the scene to conduct its investigation of the aviation incident.
Harrolle was based out of Flagstaff. He is survived by his wife, two young children and his parents.
Capt. Ken Mantay was a friend and coworker of Harrolle's when the two worked together several years ago at the Scottsdale Fire Department.
"He always wanted to be making a difference to help someone's day out, to make it better, to brighten your morning," Mantay said. "Really a likeable guy from the minute you met him."
Mantay said Harrolle wanted to do more for people and flying as a medic was his passion.
"He really felt he could make a difference by going back to the flight program full time."
Mantay said Harrolle had performed rescues like the one Monday night many times before, and he was always safe.
"Bruce has been doing it long enough he would know if that was the safest way to get them off the surface," Mantay said. "That's the way he would've picked."
Mantay said Harrolle was shielding the hiker as they approached the helicopter.
"In my understanding of how the incident occurred, it was his or the other person's life and he gave his life for that person and that was Bruce," Mantay said.
Prior to Monday's incident, DPS said it had not lost an officer in the line of duty since March 2000.
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