Alaska trooper says man convicted of shooting him was going to ‘finish the job’ when backup arrived

Alaska State Trooper Bruce Brueggeman was in a Homer courtroom Tuesday, when a jury found 61-year-old Bret Herrick guilty of attempted murder in the Anchor Point shooting which nearly cost him his life.

“I felt good about it,” Brueggeman said by phone Thursday, after witnessing the outcome he said he’s been waiting almost two years for.

State public defenders did not respond to a request on Thursday for comment on the case. 

On Aug. 23, 2021, Brueggeman said, a state employee saw Herrick — who had warrants active for his arrest — outside the Warehouse Grocery Store in Anchor Point. Brueggeman said Herrick was well-known in the area, and wasn’t hard to spot.

“He wore, like, a black leather trench coat all the time, and he always wore lots of layers to carry weapons: swords, daggers,” Brueggeman said. “He wore a crown of thorns made out of bob-barbed wire, and his head always had cuts in his forehead from wearing that crown of thorns.”

A dispatcher also sent trooper Sgt. Daniel Cox to the store, but Brueggeman said he arrived at the scene about 30 seconds sooner. Brueggeman said Herrick tried to run when asked about his warrants, and Brueggeman ran up to tackle him but couldn’t hold on and the two men fell.

As they separated on the ground, Brueggman said, Herrick reached into his coat and opened fire with a .45-caliber pistol.

“He actually had a holster with a bayonet attached to it too, so he pulled out a gun and he just started popping rounds off at me,” Brueggeman said.

Brueggeman was struck five times, mostly on his left arm. A bullet hit his ballistic vest and broke one of his ribs.

During his year with troopers at that point, Brueggeman said, he had never shot his service weapon at someone before. He said he drew his .40-caliber sidearm and fired it twice.

Then it jammed.

“I attempted to clear the malfunction — at that point in time I couldn’t because I was struck in the arm and I just didn’t have the strength or dexterity,” he said. “And that’s when I realized, ‘Wow, I was hit.’”

Herrick was not shot, troopers said at the time.

Brueggeman said he ran around the corner of the building, seeking cover and a chance to assess Herrick’s next move.

“I was still trying to watch him and he was trying to come back to finish the job, and I was yelling back at him,” he said. “And that’s when Sergeant Cox came pulling up.”

Brueggeman credited an employee of the grocery store with saving his life, by applying a tourniquet Cox gave her to his left arm. Troopers said at the time that Herrick then fled into nearby woods to hide. He was apprehended after an overnight manhunt.

Doctors treated Brueggeman first in Homer, then in Anchorage. According to an Alaska Department of Law statement on the case, every physician who initially worked on him testified at Herrick’s trial.

“On my left arm, they were going to do an amputation, but they were able to save it,” Brueggeman said. “But to save it, they had to do many, many surgeries — I actually kind of lost count.”

The shooting left Brueggeman on light duty with the troopers for about a year and a half. He said he only returned to full duty a few months ago.

“I had to wait till I could actually operate firearms, but I’ll never shoot as well as I have in the past,” he said. “And there’s a lot of things I can’t do as well with my left hand. I have to kind of revert to the other side most of the time. But this could have been a lot worse.”

A statement from Department of Public Safety Commissioner James Cockrell, a former troopers’ director, hailed both the verdict against Herrick and “a remarkable outpouring of support from our community members” since Brueggeman was shot.

Brueggeman said he received two quilts from groups that make them for wounded law enforcement officers and veterans. Classes of Kenai Peninsula students sent him cards. He said he politely declined a $1,000 donation from a church in Clam Gulch.

The state never reached any formal conclusion about why Brueggeman’s gun jammed, he said. Neither he nor the state ever sued its maker over the failure.

Brueggeman said he was initially issued a replacement gun. After he got out of the hospital, state officials asked if he still wanted his original weapon.

“I declined — because, you know, I’m superstitious,” Brueggeman said. “I think a lot of cops are like, ‘I wouldn’t want that gun back.’”

Herrick was also convicted Tuesday of four counts of assault, two counts of violating his release conditions and one count each of possessing a bayonet, escape and resisting arrest. He faces seven to 99 years on the attempted-murder charge at his Nov. 1 sentencing, with up to 10 years on some of the lesser charges.