FHP trooper back at work a year after fatal shooting

The state trooper who shot and killed a man last year told investigators he had been afraid for his life when he fired his Taser and gun repeatedly. And the State Attorney’s Office has agreed the shooting was justified, according to documents released Friday.

Trooper Mark McDonough returned to work on March 9, almost 12 months after being placed on administrative leave with pay, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.

The three-minute altercation on the side of the highway — with traffic on one side and a 36-foot drop off the overpass on the other — started after 1 a.m. on March 26, 2017.

When it was over, David Eric Ufferman had been shot four times and tased twice in the chest.

McDonough was dispatched to a report of a man seen walking on Interstate 95 near Atlantic Avenue in Delray Beach, and then sitting on a guardrail; he seemed “mentally troubled.”

According to the Palm Beach State Attorney’s Office, McDonough offered Ufferman, of Delray Beach, assistance, but he “took an

aggressive stance” and had a “crazy look in his eyes.” Ufferman said no, and walked away, according to a memo written by State Attorney Dave Aronberg.

But the trooper said he couldn’t walk away because Ufferman was then his responsibility. The trooper walked around Ufferman, while walking backward, and told Ufferman to stop. Ufferman refused.

The trooper fired his Taser to subdue Ufferman, but it didn't work. Ufferman ripped the probes off his chest and told the trooper he was going to take the Taser away. McDonough then fired his gun.

Ufferman was hit, but was now reaching for the trooper’s gun, scratching his face, according to records. The trooper fired twice more, hitting him in the forehead. Ufferman dropped to the ground.

Ufferman was taken to Delray Medical Center, where he died.

Audio captured at the scene shows the trooper called his father, telling him, “Dad, it’s me Mark. I need you. Call me back.” He left a message saying he shot somebody and needed an adviser, but McDonough told investigators with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement he hadn’t called his father.

Ufferman’s family said that on the night he was shot, he had decided to go for a walk to clear his head. For years he had used the painkiller oxycodone, which was prescribed to him to deal with injuries he sustained during construction work decades ago. But they made him feel sleepy and not fully alert, so he had recently got rid of them.

Caller ID showed that days before, Ufferman had tried to get himself checked into rehab, according to an investigation by the FDLE.

The report shows an anti-depressant was in his system.

The family’s Christian faith “is giving us peace,” Ufferman’s brother Michael said Friday.

He said he wants to believe the trooper was trying to help his brother and it was a “set of unfortunate circumstances that crescendoed and cost my brother his life.”

“I cannot fault him, the wheels of justice have turned,” Ufferman said of the trooper.