Thomas Howe

**Thomas V. Howe** is a Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) Sergeant and the founder of the Los Angeles Precision Shooting Team (LAPST).

## Early Life

Thomas Victor Howe was born on June 29, 1978 in Los Angeles, California to Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) sergeant Gerard L. Howe and psychologist and addiction specialist Marisol B. Howe (nee Alvez). Thomas took up competitive shooting in high school and eventually joined a local team in 1998, the team ended up disbanding in 2007 due to lack of funding. Thomas attended John Marshall High School and graduated in 1996.

## Career

Thomas was born into a second generation law enforcement family and always wanted to become an LAPD officer like this father and great uncle. Thomas joined the Los Angeles Police Department as a reserve officer in 1996 and an officer in 1999. Thomas began his career as a patrol officer in the Foothill Division of the Valley Bureau, in 2010 he was promoted to Sergeant and became a patrol supervisor in the West Los Angeles Division. Thomas is also an LAPD Special Weapons and Tactics Team (SWAT) officer and tactical instructor. In 2020, Thomas was severely injured in a training accident when he fell while repelling down a fire tower during a LAPD SWAT training exercise. He was able to make a full recovery and was declared fit to return to duty as both an officer and a SWAT operator.

In 2017, Thomas founded the Los Angeles Precision Shooting Team which is also known as Sentinel Blue. Sentinel Blue takes part in competitions in the Law Enforcement Multigun (LEM) category, it also advocates for high standards of law enforcement and civilian weapons training and safety. Thomas became the captain of the Sentinel One Tier One Team from 2017 to 2020, after being seriously injured in a training accident in 2020, Thomas stepped down as team captain and let friend Steven Ellis take over captaincy. Thomas now serves as team coordinator, trainer, and armorer. While competing, Thomas was sponsored by TacWorks Academy for equipment, ammunition and training, clothing and shooting gear, and by Strayer Voigt (SVI) for handguns and competition gunsmithing. Thomas used his Kimber Custom TLE as his duty handgun for the Agency category, a Glock 17 as his Standard category handgun, and an SVI IPSC pistol as his Unlimited category handgun. Thomas uses a Hecker & Koch HK416 A5 rifle and a Remington 870 Police as his Agency and Standard category rifle and shotgun respectively. Thomas uses a self customized Knight's Armament Company SR-15 Mod 2 and a TacWorks customized Benelli M2 as his Unlimited category rifle and shotgun respectively.

### Service History

* Reserve Officer: 1996 to 1999 (Operational support)
* Foothill Division Patrol: 1999 to 2010
* West Los Angeles Division: 2010 to Present (Patrol Supervisor)

## Personal Life

Thomas has been single since 2015, he was previously married to defense attorney Alicia Moore from 2001 to 2012. Thomas is an amateur tennis player, a skydiving and BASE jumping enthusiast, and an avid hiker. Thomas lives in Westwood, Los Angeles. Thomas is a Thursday person, a Cancer in the western zodiac, and an Earth Horse in the Chinese zodiac.