Master Trooper Walker was laid to rest today after being shot and killed along side I 85 in Virginia. Thank you for your 30+ years of service to the state of Virginia. My he rest in peace. Thoughts are with his family, friends and coworkers and all those who’s lives he touched along the way.
For more info…
“Master Trooper Junius Walker was a 35-year veteran of the Virginia State Police; a man known as a gentle giant who had patrolled roads around Dinwiddie County for nearly three decades. His final run was to check on an apparently disabled vehicle on Interstate 85.Walker, 63, pulled his marked patrol car alongside the black sedan that was stopped on the shoulder of the southbound lanes about 1:20 p.m. Thursday, near mile marker 45, about 40 miles south of Richmond.
The person in the driver’s seat of the sedan opened fire, police say, wounding Walker multiple times.
“He was a great man, not only in size but in personality and in character,” Corinne Geller, a state police spokeswoman, said of Walker, who was 6-foot-4. “This is a very difficult time for our department. He’s well known in this community, well loved.”
Walker’s car lurched forward after the shooting, traveling about 30 feet off the highway and coming to rest in the woods.
Police say a passing motorist called 911 to report a trooper in distress. When additional troopers arrived, one saw Russell E. Brown, 28, of Chesterfield, Va., standing outside Walker’s patrol car with a weapon, police said.
The trooper and Brown exchanged shots, and Brown fled, police said. Other officers were called in to search for him.
About 30 minutes later, sheriff’s deputies arrested Brown at a tow-truck company about a half-mile away from the site of the shooting. Investigators recovered a firearm in the woods and were awaiting ballistics tests to determine whether it was the weapon used in the killing.
While police were searching for Brown, the heat from the engine of Walker’s vehicle caused the brush under his patrol car to catch fire, state police said. Troopers were able to pull Walker from the burning vehicle, but his gunshot wounds proved fatal, police said in a statement.
Brown was charged with one count of capital murder of a police officer, one count of attempted capital murder of a police officer, and two counts of using a firearm in the commission of a felony. He was being held without bond at the Meherrin River Regional Jail in Alberta, Va.
“Master Trooper Walker was a highly-respected and longtime veteran of our department, which has made his shocking death especially hard on the Virginia State Police family,” said Col. W. Steven Flaherty, the Virginia State Police superintendent. “For 35 years he served us proud as a mentor to multitudes of new troopers, as a valued partner and colleague to his fellow Area 7 troopers.”
Walker was married and had two adult daughters. He is the first Virginia trooper to be fatally shot on duty since February 2006, when Trooper Kevin C. Manion was wounded in the chest while investigating a crash in Clarke County, according to the state police Web site.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-state-trooper-is-shot-to-death-on-interstate-85-in-dinwiddie-county/2013/03/07/533ead3c-8791-11e2-98a3-b3db6b9ac586_story.html
“The 9-1-1 Dispatcher”
Yup.
I loooove our dispatchers, even when they get sassy with me. I have never ever questioned their concern
My town did this as they started the route to Austin for his burial. So proud of my town for this amazing act of respect to say goodbye to our very own Chris Kyle.
This is such a beautiful way to honor and respect the true American hero that lived in our town. Rest in paradise Chris Kyle
Monday, February 11, 2013
By BEN R. WILLIAMS - Bulletin Staff Writer
Fans of customized cars and trucks need look no further. The new ambulance at Martinsville Fire and EMS may be the most unique vehicle on the road.
According to Deputy Chief Kristopher Shrader, the pre-planning and design of the ambulance began eight months before the contract to manufacture it was even signed. “We put together a committee with one person off each shift, three guys and myself,” Shrader said. “(We) were tasked with trying to come up with an ambulance configuration, a box design, to where whenever the attendants were in the truck, they would be secure.” According to Shrader, a difficulty with older, conventional ambulances is that because of the way the seats and seatbelts for the paramedics are designed, it is difficult for them to work on patients while being buckled in. If a paramedic is unrestrained in the event of an accident, he could sustain serious injuries. “It really called for a whole redesign of the truck itself,” Shrader said. “We took several trips to Florida; we met with a vendor from Wheeled Coach; and we designed the truck from the ground up.” Wheeled Coach is a company that specializes in designing the “box” portion of ambulances. The box on the city’s new ambulance is built onto a 2012 International TerraStar chassis. Wheeled Coach “had to design a whole new set of electronics,” Shrader said. “The way the controls are set up, no matter where you’re sitting in the truck, you can control the lights, the suction units. Typically on the older style trucks, if you’re not sitting in a particular spot, you can’t do any of that stuff.” Also, the seats for the EMS workers are fitted with five-point harnesses, similar to those used in racing events. “It is very unique,” Shrader said. “The manufacturer has never built a truck like this, period. They had to design some of the electronics from scratch. Everything that I could need is within arm’s reach.” Another feature of the ambulance that has proven popular with EMS workers is the Striker power lift system. “The original design for this truck called for a standard cot-mounting system,” Shrader said. “We got a power-load system, so that the cot realistically loads itself.” Instead of having to lift the cot carrying the patient off the ground and slide it into the ambulance, the power lift system lifts the cot automatically. “That way we don’t have a lot of the back strain,” Shrader said. Other new features include a camera in the box of the ambulance connected to a monitor in the front cabin, LED lighting that provides less drain on the battery and reflective red striping on the inside of the rear doors, so the ambulance is clearly visible at night even while the doors are open. “That’s going to be a NFPA (National Fire Protection Agency) requirement,” Shrader said. “That standard’s not in effect yet, but we went ahead and tried to meet that.” The sticker price on the ambulance was $260,000. Through incentives from the manufacturer and a grant from the state EMS office through the Rescue Squad Assistance fund program, the total cost to the city was less than $100,000. The new ambulance has been at Martinsville Fire and EMS since November. It is housed in and responding to calls out of the city fire station in uptown Martinsville. “Probably within the next month or two, its permanent assignment will be out of our Southside fire station,” Shrader said. Over the years, Shrader has worked in a lot of different ambulances, including a 1974 Cadillac ambulance and an ambulance based on a Chevrolet Suburban chassis. The difference between these older models and the new ambulance is vast, he said. “It’s night and day.”
Air Track: Air track is the movement of air and smoke as observed from the exterior and inside the structure. Air track is used to describe a group of fire behavior indicators that includes direction of smoke movement at openings (e.g., outward, inward, pulsing), velocity and turbulence, and movement of the lower boundary of the upper layer (e.g., up, down, pulsing).
They had an ambulance involved in a fatal rollover MVA tonight.
The driver that hit them was pronounced dead on scene. The medic and EMT were airlifted to University of Louisville Hospital with serious injuries. A 10 month old was transported to Kosair children’s hospital, and an adult was…
Keeping them in my thoughts and prayers.
Rest in peace Tomasz Kaczowka and Michael Chiapperini. I’m honored to have worked and shared laughs with you, Chip!
The cards for Nathan Norman police caravan just rolled through here a little while ago, it’s so awesome to see police officers and firefighters reaching out to this little boy, my cards going in the mail tomorrow along with a challenge coin from my department.
Here’s a new link for those of y’all…
Went to Sandy Hook today. One of the kids killed last week wanted to be a firefighter when he grew up, the family thought it would be nice to have some firemen there at the cemetery. 500 showed up. There were also several hundred more showing support outside the church as well.
All in dress blues, too. BROS LEMME LOVE YOU.
