Trooper mourned after shooting:
A state trooper who was fatally shot at a busy bus terminal during a training exercise was being mourned Friday in Virginia and in Michigan, where he grew up and maintained ties, as officials tried to learn what sparked the shooting.
A gunman shot Trooper Chad P. Dermyer, 37, multiple times Thursday in the capital city of Richmond before he was shot dead by two other troopers, police said. The gunman’s identity was being withheld until his family could be notified.
Two civilians, both women, also were shot but were expected to recover. Their names haven’t been released, but spokesman Ryan Yarosh with Binghamton University in New York said Friday that one of the women was a member of the school’s track team. The team was headed Thursday to a meet at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, about 50 miles from Richmond.
Police say Dermyer, the father of two children, was a native of Jackson, Michigan, and a former Marine who had served on the force in Jackson and Newport News, Virginia.
He grew up in Michigan and kept in touch with friends there, visiting last summer, The Jackson Citizen Patriot reported. Matt Miller of Jackson said he played soccer with and against Dermyer since they were children. He described Dermyer as a good guy and a strong athlete.
Virginia State Police Superintendent Col Steven Flaherty said investigators don’t know what sparked the shooting. Dermyer had been participating with about a dozen other troopers in a training exercise at the bus station when a brief encounter with the gunman quickly turned violent, he said.
Dermyer was dressed in a fatigue-style uniform and was not wearing a protective vest, the superintendent said.
“We’ve got a lot of evidence to sift through,” Flaherty said. The evidence, he said, included bags that could have belonged to the gunman. (AP)