Man charged with killing wife, trooper

Soldier at Fort Drum being held without bail

A state police trooper responding to reports of gunfire was shot to death by a soldier who had just killed his wife at their home near his Army base in northern New York, authorities said Monday.

Trooper Joel Davis was approaching the couple’s home in rural Theresa, near the Canadian border, when Staff Sgt. Justin Walters shot him in the torso with a rifle, leaving him in a roadside ditch, according to police and court documents. Another trooper arrived and found Davis, 36, who died about an hour later at a hospital.

Walters’ wife, Nichole Walters, was found dead in the driveway, with multiple gunshot wounds. A female friend of hers, who was living on the property, also was shot, suffering nonlife-threatening injuries, police said.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said “the entire New York family grieves” for Davis. A married father of three teenagers, he was the commissioner of a youth baseball league in his tight-knit community.

“It’s not just the police who suffer a loss like this,” said state police Superintendent George P. Beach

II, noting that signs have already sprung up around the area to pay tribute to Davis.

Justin Walters, 32, was clad only in shorts when he was brought to a town court around 4 a.m. Monday to be charged with murder, WWNYTV reported. Ordered held without bail, he was scheduled to be re-arraigned late in the day, authorities said. A message left with the lawyer assigned to his case wasn’t immediately returned.

A native of Zeeland, Michigan, Walters joined the Army in 2007 and did two one-year tours in Afghanistan, in 2009 and again from March 2011 to March 2012, Army officials said. Walters was stationed at Fort Drum, home of the 10th Mountain Division.

The sprawling post is home to about 15,000 soldiers who are among the most-deployed in the

U.S. military. More than half the soldiers with families live off base in nearby towns in a region known for its harsh winters and farmland.

The state police superintendent said Davis was wearing body armor, but the round hit him in his side, where he had no protection.

Beach said Walters gave no motive for the shootings.