RICHMOND, Va., April 1 (UPI) — A 37-year-old Virginia state trooper on a training exercise with a criminal interdiction squad died after being shot at a Greyhound bus station in Richmond.
Chad P. Dermyer and other law enforcement were participating in field work about 2:45 p.m. Thursday at the bus station in downtown Richmond when he approachedJames Brown III of Aurora, Ill., to question him. Brown allegedly opened fire on the trooper, shooting him “multiple times,” police said.
Dermyer, who was not wearing a protective vest, was taken to a local hospital, where he died. Brown was shot by other officers on the scene and died.
State police Col. W. Steven Flaherty said it was unclear what drew Dermyer to Brown, who had an arrest record but was not being sought. As part of the counter-terrorism and criminal interdiction unit, Dermyer’s assignment was to identify suspicious people in public transit areas and highways to intercept guns and drugs.
“‘If you see some suspicious behavior, go over and engage and have a conversation.’ That was what was taking place here,” Flaherty said, referencing the wording of the squad’s training assignment.
Dermyer, a four-year Marine veteran, graduated from the police academy in 2014. He was an officer with the Newport News, Va., and Jackson, Mich., police departments before joining the state police. He was originally assigned to patrol the Newport News and Hampton areas of Virginia and recently transferred to the counterterrorism and criminal interdiction unit.
Dermyer is survived by his wife and two children. His sister-in-law remembered him as a “loving brother, father, son and uncle. He was very involved with his son and daughter. He was a happy guy who died doing what he loved.”
Two women at the bus station also sustained non-lifethreatening wounds during the shooting.
