BY MARK BOWES AND LOUIS LLOVIO RICHMOND TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITERS | Posted: Thursday, March 7, 2013 3:45 pm
A Virginia State Police trooper was fatally shot this afternoon during an incident in which a gunman fired into the trooper’s car along southbound Interstate 85 in Dinwiddie County, state police said.
The trooper, who was not immediately identified, was taken by Medflight helicopter to VCU Medical Center. A law enforcement source said the trooper has died; a police spokeswoman at the scene declined to release the man’s condition until his family could be notified.
Police said they received a shots-fired call involving a trooper about 1:20 p.m. A responding trooper who arrived almost immediately found a marked patrol car in the woods off the right side of the southbound lanes near mile marker 45, police said
The responding trooper observed a man standing outside the police cruiser and firing a shotgun into it. The trooper immediately fired on the gunman, who then fled into the woods on foot, police said.
“The trooper was firing on the male subject as he was firing into the vehicle, in an attempt obviously to get the individual to stop firing on the other trooper,” said spokeswoman Corinne Geller.
The gunman was apprehended a short time later in the 19600 block of Boydton Plank Road, off I-85.
“We believe (the wounded trooper) was stopped at the 45 mile marker for a traffic stop, but we’re still in the process of determining exactly what the circumstances were that led him to be there….and exactly how his vehicle got up into the woods,” Geller said.
Geller said a weapon was recovered, but police haven’t yet determined whether it was used in the shooting.
“We were very fortunate, we had a very large law enforcement response as soon as the shots fired call went out,” Geller said, adding that deputies from Dinwiddie and Brunswick counties responded, as well as officers from Petersburg, Colonial Heights, the ATF and the U.S Marshals Service. That response led to the quick apprehension of the suspect, Geller said.
A Virginia State Police trooper was fatally shot this afternoon during an incident in which a gunman fired into the trooper’s car along southbound Interstate 85 in Dinwiddie County, state police said.
The trooper, who was not immediately identified, was taken by Medflight helicopter to VCU Medical Center. A law enforcement source said the trooper has died; a police spokeswoman at the scene declined to release the man’s condition until his family could be notified.
Police said they received a shots-fired call involving a trooper about 1:20 p.m. A responding trooper who arrived almost immediately found a marked patrol car in the woods off the right side of the southbound lanes near mile marker 45, police said
The responding trooper observed a man standing outside the police cruiser and firing a shotgun into it. The trooper immediately fired on the gunman, who then fled into the woods on foot, police said.
“The trooper was firing on the male subject as he was firing into the vehicle, in an attempt obviously to get the individual to stop firing on the other trooper,” said spokeswoman Corinne Geller.
The gunman was apprehended a short time later in the 19600 block of Boydton Plank Road, off I-85.
“We believe (the wounded trooper) was stopped at the 45 mile marker for a traffic stop, but we’re still in the process of determining exactly what the circumstances were that led him to be there….and exactly how his vehicle got up into the woods,” Geller said.
Geller said a weapon was recovered, but police haven’t yet determined whether it was used in the shooting.
“We were very fortunate, we had a very large law enforcement response as soon as the shots fired call went out,” Geller said, adding that deputies from Dinwiddie and Brunswick counties responded, as well as officers from Petersburg, Colonial Heights, the ATF and the U.S Marshals Service. That response led to the quick apprehension of the suspect, Geller said.
