A ‘trademark smile’ and ‘sincere faith’: Looking at the life of slain Ada County deputy

When Tobin Bolter was growing up on the east side of the San Francisco Bay Area, he used to chase his little sister around in a battery-operated truck, crashing into her pink Barbie convertible Jeep — in what she’d later learn is a technique law enforcement uses to stop moving vehicles.

After he’d done his childhood PIT maneuver, while decked out in a police uniform, Bolter would get out of his plastic truck — which had lights and sirens — and try to handcuff his sister with tiny plastic restraints. His parents would tell young Tobin that he wasn’t allowed to arrest his sister.

“Tobin wanted to be a police officer his whole life,” Tessa Araujo told thousands of people Tuesday during the memorial service for her 27-year-old brother, who recently had joined the Ada County Sheriff’s Office after a short stint with the Meridian Police Department.

Bolter was shot by 65-year-old Dennis Mulqueen on the night of April 20 after performing a traffic stop on the Boise Bench. He died the next morning at Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center, making him the first Ada County sheriff’s deputy to be killed in the line of duty and leaving the law enforcement community and the Treasure Valley at large in mourning.

Mulqueen was shot and killed by a Boise Police Department officer.

“We’re angry, and we’re confused, and we’re sad,” Ada County Sheriff Matt Clifford said at a vigil in Star, “but the showing of support from the public has given us so much hope.”

Friends, family detail Bolter’s early life

Bolter attended Walnut Creek Christian Academy in California through eighth grade, which is when he met future wife Abbey Wells. The pair “immediately” became best friends, Star Police Chief Zach Hessing said during an April vigil, but one of her family’s rules was that she couldn’t date until after she graduated from high school.

“So, Tobin stuck around being best friends with her,” said Hessing, who is employed through the Ada County Sheriff’s Office and was asked to spend time with the Bolter family following the shooting.

That is until their senior year of high school, when Tobin Bolter — dressed “very nicely” and holding a six-page document — showed up at Abbey Bolter’s house to speak with her father to explain why they should be able to date, Hessing said.

“That shows again his dedication and his love for Abbey,” Hessing said, “and the kind of person he was.”

Hessing wasn’t sure whether Abbey Bolter’s father agreed to the courtship, but he said the couple dated in college, where Tobin Bolter ran into another of her father’s rules: They couldn’t get married until he had a full-time job.

Tobin Bolter attended The Master’s University in Santa Clarita, California — which has since announced a scholarship in Bolter’s memory — completing a four-year degree in two-and-half years. He graduated from the private Christian university outside Los Angeles in 2017 with a degree in business administration.

Back in the Bay Area in 2017, Bolter joined the police department in Pleasant Hill, which neighbored the community where he grew up. During his time there, Bolter worked as a crisis negotiator on the department’s SWAT team, worked on the auto theft task force and received a commendation for responding to a “fully engulfed” apartment fire, Police Chief Scott Vermillion said.

“We are a small community, so we do think of him as family,” Vermillion told the Idaho Statesman by phone.

By June 2018, the Bolters got married. Abbey Bolter’s father, Benjie Wells, called it one of the most “proud” and “joyous” moments of his life, according to a Facebook post. Tobin Bolter’s dedication to Abbey Bolter and respect for her, and his commitment to God, was something that struck a chord with Bennett Wells, Abbey Bolter’s younger brother.

“A Christian lives for Christ and not themselves,” Wells said during the memorial service. “This reality was foundational in everything Tobin did, big or small. The way he pursued my sister was a reflection of the fact that Christ was the center of his life.

“In my speech at their wedding, I said this: ‘It is abundantly clear that you will be able to lead this family in a way that honors God and honors my sister,’ ” Wells added. “And he did, faithfully, until the very end.”

The Bolters would have celebrated six years of marriage in June, but Abbey Bolter said during the service that they’d been best friends for 14 years. She added that he was a “constant source” of entertainment and the best proofreader, and that she’d miss the notes of encouragement he regularly left for her.

Abbey Bolter is pregnant for the second time. The first pregnancy for the Bolters resulted in a miscarriage, several people said during the service.

“We packed a lifetime of memories into the time that God gave us,” Abbey Bolter said. “It is my hope that you will leave this ceremony today understanding how much Tobin loved being a part of the law enforcement community — but mostly how Tobin loved God. His faith consumed every aspect of his life; the depth of Tobin’s faith radiated through his smile and infectious laughter, and I know he wanted nothing more than for you all to consider what will be shared today.”

In 2022, the Bolters decided to move to Idaho hoping for a slower pace of life, and settled in Middleton. That area has seen an influx of people from California looking for a tighter-knit, conservative Christian community, residents told the Statesman.

Tobin Bolter joined the Meridian Police Department before transferring to the Ada County Sheriff’s Office in January. That’s around the time when Sheriff Clifford met Bolter, who he remembered always had “a big grin on his face.”

“That’s what he looked like all the time and I just thought, ‘This kid is so happy to be here,’ ” Clifford said. “And I was so thankful for that.”

Christ was the ‘great unifying passion’ of Bolter’s life, pastor says

Former Pleasant Hills Police Chief Bryan Hill said he met Bolter when he was a 16-year-old volunteer cadet for the Walnut Creek Police Department. Hill said the Walnut Creek department, where he worked at the time, was always in need of role players for scenario-based training.

“Where do you go when you can’t find role players or car washers or any number of crappy and thankless jobs?” Hill said during Bolter’s funeral, which was attended by thousands of law enforcement officers from throughout Idaho.

“Well, of course, you go to the cadets, because those kids will do just about anything.”

There was one kid “with a trademark smile” who played every role, from the hostage to the hostage taker, the angry dad or even the frightened mom, Hill said. That kid was Bolter.

“He even played the dangerous barricaded parolee,” Hill said. “But I got to tell you this, with that classic boy-next-door face of his and that infectious smile — he didn’t really pull that one off very well.”

Within a few years, Bolter made his dreams a reality. In 2017, Hill, who’d then joined the Pleasant Hill department, hired the 20-year-old Bolter. Hill said he remembered telling Bolter’s family at his swearing-in ceremony — after Bolter had graduated from the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Department Police Academy — that while Bolter was the youngest officer he’d ever hired, he was doing so with “great confidence.”

“I knew he was driven, I knew he was mature, and most importantly I knew he had an integrity beyond reproach,” Hill said during the memorial service. “What I didn’t tell that crowd that day, but what I’m telling you all today, is that I knew Tobin was called. I knew he was called to this profession — and I knew of his sincere faith and I knew his sincere faith would guide him and his decisions.”

That connection between Bolter’s devout faith and his desire to work in law enforcement was something he thought went hand-in-hand. In his high school yearbook, Bolter mentioned his experience as a volunteer cadet and said that the officers he worked alongside taught him — whether during a traffic stop or dealing with a criminal suspect — that he can “treat people with respect and due compassion,” like Christ.

Another aspect of Bolter’s desire to help others came into play as a coach. Less than a year after he graduated from college, Bolter began coaching cross country and track at Berean Christian High School in Walnut Creek, where he went to school.

There would be some days that Bolter would get off duty from the Pleasant Hill police and go straight to the high school to coach, not even having enough time to change his clothes, Berean Christian High School Principal Nick Harris said. On the other days, he’d be dressed up in shorts and sneakers, running alongside the kids.

“He would be out in front leading those kids in a run — showing them the way,” Harris said. “A man who showed up every single day to give back.”

Almost every person who spoke about Bolter during his memorial service recalled his commitment to God. It was an integral part of the three-hour ceremony, with Bolter’s most recent and former pastors asking those in attendance to turn toward Jesus Christ. Members of Bolter’s church, Compass Bible Church Treasure Valley, also handed out several thousand copies of the Gospel of John following the service.

“This is how Tobin would want it,” Bolter’s mentor Justin Wade said.

In a phone interview with the Statesman, Wade, who coaches at Berean Christian High School, said Bolter would want his death to bring people to their faith, adding that Bolter would probably be a little embarrassed by all the attention.

“He was a very humble guy,” Wade said. “He didn’t like all the attention put on him. He’d definitely rather it go to someone else or give God the credit.”

Kent Dresdow is the senior pastor at NorthCreek Church, where Bolter went to church in Walnut Creek. He said during the memorial service that, while what happened to Bolter was “an unspeakable evil,” Bolter is now in heaven.

“The great unifying passion of Tobin’s life — living for Christ — means that death is gain,” Dresdow said. “Because of the death and resurrection of Christ, Tobin’s in heaven rejoicing with joy inexpressible and filled with joy.”

“Tobin is more alive right now than you are sitting in your chair,” he added.

‘All we could do:’ Citizen recounts the night of Bolter’s shooting

It was just before 9 p.m. Saturday, April 20, when Bolter — who was in the early hours of his night patrol shift — pulled over Mulqueen’s vehicle near the area of Overland Road and South Raymond Street on the Boise Bench, about one mile from the county’s unincorporated area.

Bolter patrolled unincorporated portions of Ada County, either the north or south side depending on the shift, but it’s common for deputies to travel into the county’s cities. The Sheriff’s Office is located in Boise, and deputies have to pass through the cities to get to certain patrol areas, according to an agency spokesperson.

The Sheriff’s Office previously said that it doesn’t know why Bolter stopped Mulqueen, and deputies typically don’t announce the reason for conducting a traffic stop over the radio. Mulqueen did have a $3,000 warrant out for his arrest after he missed a December 2023 hearing on a DUI charge, online court records showed.

One of the citizens, Dennis Everhart of Boise, told the Idaho Statesman in a phone interview that while he was driving down Overland Road that Saturday night, he saw Bolter lying in the middle of the Interchange Business Center parking lot along Overland.

Everhart said he turned around his car and headed back to the parking lot, coming across two young men who’d already gotten out of their pickup truck after hearing Mulqueen’s gunshot. Between the three of them, they applied pressure to Bolter’s neck to try to slow the bleeding and called 911, but they didn’t give Bolter CPR — as had been previously reported by the Sheriff’s Office — because he had a pulse, Everhart told the Statesman.

“That’s basically all we could do,” Everhart said.

Within minutes, he said, paramedics and other first responders arrived, and Bolter was taken to Saint Alphonsus. He died roughly 12 hours later, according to the Ada County Coroner’s Office.

In the days following Bolter’s death, the community showed an outpouring of support for the deputy and the greater law enforcement community. Hundreds of people attended vigils throughout Idaho, tens of thousands of dollars were raised for Bolter’s family, and law enforcement members from all over the state and farther-reaching areas like Montana, Oregon and California traveled to Idaho for his memorial service.

“This community has lavished our family with prayers, meal services and financial support,” Abbey Bolter said during the memorial service. “I’m truly speechless at the generosity of so many individuals. I have seen God’s grace and mercy shown through all of you.”