Trooper Down! Read Online Free PDF Page A

of Burke County is Interstate 40, a major transportation artery that channels the flow of traffic heading east from Tennessee and states beyond.
    During his eight years as a trooper, Louis had distinguished himself as an active, competent officer, having encountered his share of drunk drivers, speeders, violators, accident victims, and other motorists in distress. And, not surprisingly, he’d gotten into a fight or two, once with a 240-pound drunk who had wrapped his arms around Louis, nearly squeezing him to death, and once with an irate driver who, in a fit of temper, pulled a gun.
    Though aware that the potential for danger lurked daily in a trooper’s job, Louis truly believed nothing serious would ever happen to him on the road. It would always be the other guy, another trooper whose name and face would appear on the six o’clock news. As a result, he was more enforcement-conscious than safety-conscious, a lopsided attitude inadvertently encouraged by highway patrol policy. Since an officer’s abilities as a trooper were measured by the number of tickets he wrote weekly and the types of arrests he made, it was imperative that he present himself as an active, aggressive trooper who did his job well (i.e., wrote a lot of tickets). Conscientiouspatrolmen like Louis were particularly susceptible to such internal pressures.
    That March night, Louis’s shift began as a routine patrol.
    Louis left the house around midnight in his unmarked cruiser, checking on duty through the Newton Communications Center.
    â€œF-138, Newton,” he said, identifying his call number. “I’m now 10-41 (beginning tour of duty).”
    â€œTen-four,” the telecommunicator replied,
    Since the patrol was short-handed in both Burke and adjoining Catawba County, troopers shared the responsibility of patrolling long stretches of Interstate 40. So for the next hour, Louis headed west before turning around at the McDowell County line (which also adjoined Burke) to backtrack east.
    About midway on his assigned route, he clocked several tractor-trailer rigs exceeding the fifty-five speed limit. One trucker was barreling along at seventy, so Louis pulled him over and, after arresting him, took him to the Morganton County Jail where he was fined forty-seven dollars for speeding, and released.
    Heading back toward the interstate, Louis should have patrolled the stretch of highway he had not yet covered. Instead, without knowing why, he turned and drove to the same location he had just patrolled. When he reached the McDowell County line he crossed over as he had done earlier, cruising toward Morganton.
    Moments later he spotted a light gray 1978 Cadillac in the westbound lane going much too fast. Using his radar, Louis clocked the driver at seventy-four miles per hour and crossed the grassy interstate median to pursue him. Nearing the McDowell County line, he caught up with the car, activated the blue patrol light, and turned on the siren. But the driver sped forward.
    The chase continued across the county line until the Cadillac finally slowed, then eased onto the right emergency lane to stop. Louis pulled up behind. With the engine still running, he stepped out of the patrol car. The air surrounding him was gray and foggy, heavy with the threat of a bone-chilling rain.
    In his left hand he carried a patrol-issued flashlight. Inside the car lay his bulletproof vest, slung carelessly across the front seat. Hot and bulky, it was an optional piece of equipment that Louis and other North Carolina state troopers seldom bothered to wear.
    As soon as his feet hit the pavement, instinct took over. Somethingtold him not to move too quickly, for this would be a traffic stop like none he had ever encountered. Yet he still had to act.
    Slowly and methodically, Louis moved to the left rear door of the Cadillac. The back window was halfway down, and he could see a portion of the driver’s head. At first he thought the man was wearing