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Trooper slain at bus station hailed for arrests, rescue

April 1, 2016
Bus Station shooting

Police and rescue officials mingle with bus patrons outside the Greyhound Bus Station on Thursday, March 31, 2016, in Richmond, Va. Virginia State Police said at least two troopers responding to a shooting at the Richmond bus station and civilian have been taken to a hospital. A police spokeswoman says the shooting suspect was in custody. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — When Virginia State Trooper Chad P. Dermyer pulled a woman over last year on Interstate 64 for expired license plates, his gut told him something wasn’t right.

Dermyer called a former partner and said the driver was acting normal but he couldn’t shake a strange feeling. Dermyer eventually searched the trunk and found the remains of the driver’s long-missing son, authorities said. The driver has since been charged with murder.

It was the kind of career-making stop that friends and colleagues said highlighted his natural gift for police work. Dermyer was fatally shot Thursday at the Richmond Greyhound bus station when an ex-con opened fire just inches from the trooper’s chest.

“That was him: he dug, he didn’t give up,” said Cyndi Grace, who partnered with Dermyer for four years at the Newport News Police Department. “He was exceptional in every sense of the word.”

Dermyer had been participating in a counterterrorism training exercise at the bus station with about a dozen other troopers, special agents and supervisors when he was shot.

Authorities said James Brown III, of Aurora, Illinois, shot Dermyer before being killed by two other troopers. Two women were also shot but were expected to recover. Police said they aren’t sure what led Brown to start shooting.

State police superintendent Steven Flaherty said Friday that surveillance footage from the bus station helped authorities piece together what happened moments before the shooting. Brown, at the terminal for a stop on his way to Chicago, was seated in a restaurant. He walked toward his bags near the front entrance of the station and encountered Dermyer, who may have made some small talk, and Brown pulled a handgun and started firing.

The police superintendent said he wasn’t sure why Brown started shooting. He said the gun was legally purchased more than a year ago, but not by Brown. He had more than 140 rounds with him.

Friends and family fondly recalled Dermyer as a devoted family man and consummate professional.

“He was a gentle outgoing person who would do anything for anyone,” his brother John Dermyer Jr. said in an email.

Earlier this year, Dermyer and another trooper became mini celebrities when they helped rescue a lost dog running through interstate traffic in Hampton. Jeffrey Corbin, the dog’s owner, said Dermyer’s easy going personality helped reshape Corbin’s view of police.

“I don’t have a lot of contact with state troopers, but in my mind’s eye they seem to be all business,” Corbin said. “But he seemed to be a really warm person. … He had a warm persona about him.”

Dermyer is survived by his wife and two children. He was a former Marine who previously served on police forces in in Jackson and Newport News, Virginia.

Brown, 34, had a lengthy criminal record in his home state, including charges of attempted murder, unlawful possession of a firearm and body armor as a felon and threatening to kill someone by phone. He often pleaded guilty to lesser charges or a single charge after being charged with several crimes.

Brown’s most recent conviction there was from 2012, when he pleaded guilty to domestic battery and aggravated battery of a pregnant woman and was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison.

The injured women’s names haven’t been released, but a spokesman for Binghamton University in New York said that one of them 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.

The Binghamton student was released from the hospital Friday, spokesman Ryan Yarosh said.

The police identified the student as a 21-year-old woman from Wingdale, New York. The other woman hurt was a 47-year-old from Jacksonville, North Carolina, who was also passing through. Her injuries were not life-threatening.

The Richmond Greyhound station where the shooting occurred was scheduled to re-open Friday afternoon.