Police identify dead trooper
North Country resident Travis Trim, 23, sought in trooper shooting
Staff reports
Last updated: 3:29 p.m., Wednesday, April 25, 2007
MARGARETVILLE -- An 8-year-veteran of the State Police died this morning, killed in the hunt for a man suspected of shooting at least two other troopers.
Trooper David C. Brinkerhoff, 29, was shot at 8:45 a.m. while he and fellow Trooper Richard Mattson were searching a home on Cemetery Road for Travis Trim, a 23-year-old St. Lawrence County man wanted for questioning in the shooting Tuesday of another trooper.
Mattson was also shot and was undergoing surgery Wednesday afternoon at Albany Medical Center Hospital.
Shortly after noon, police had surrounded a barn in a valley where Trim was believed to be holed up. Small armored vehicles were also outside the location.
``Today, the New York State Police and the state of New York suffered a tremendous loss,'' Gov. Eliot Spitzer said in a statement. ``One of our best has fallen and another has been seriously wounded in the line of duty.
``While everything possible is being done to address the needs of the families, and to deal with the situation in the field in Delaware County, I ask all New Yorkers to keep the State Police in their thoughts and prayers during this harrowing time.''
Spitzer visited with the injured trooper's family at Albany Med.
``It's a tragedy. It's like losing a member of the family. We grieve,'' Spitzer said as he left the hospital at about 3 p.m.
The entrance to the emergency room at Albany Medical Center Hospital was barricaded this afternoon and security has kept people back. A few state police vehicles were parked at the hospital, and members of the media have assembled.
Coxsackie Town Supervisor Alexander Betke was one of many visitors to the hospital. "I feel sick to my stomach. He loved his wife and his baby more than anything else," said Betke, a long-time friend of Brinkerhoff. "I'm in shock. My prayers and thoughts are with his wife, baby and family. It was a tragic loss of a great person who served this state proudly and heroically."
Trooper Matthew Gombosi, based at Troop C in Sidney, was shot in the chest Tuesday but was not seriously injured in the 2:45 p.m. shooting, said Trooper Nelson Torres, public information officer.
Police said they found the stolen Dodge Caravan Trim allegedly drove abandoned on Searles Hill Road in the town of Middletown on Tuesday.
Police are advising all residents in that area to keep their doors locked and make sure they remove all keys from cars and recreational vehicles.
Albany Police Chief James Tuffey left Albany Med at 11:40 a.m., just as Schenectady Police Chief Michael Geraci pulled up to the hospital. The two police chiefs spoke briefly with each other and had little information to report to the media.
Tuffey said, "Our condolences go out to the families of the officers shot. We're here to support the State Police."
Trim attended the State University of New York at Canton in fall 2006, studying motor-sports performance and repair before leaving the school.
This week's carnage bore an eerie similarity to Ralph "Bucky" Phillips' cop-shooting rampage last year that ended with the death of Trooper Joseph Longobardo and injury to two other troopers.
Phillips, 44, escaped from the Erie County jail last April and on June 10 shot Trooper Sean Brown in Chemung County. Brown, 31, recovered from his injuries and returned to work last summer.
Troopers spent months searching for Phillips in western New York. He ambushed Longobardo, and fellow Trooper Donald Baker Jr., of Clifton Park on Aug. 31, shooting them both and killing Longobardo who lived in Saratoga County.
Phillips was captured on Sept. 8 in Akeley, Pa. He admitted he killed Longobardo and pleaded guilty to other charges. He is serving a life sentence in state prison.
"From experience, I can just tell you that it's the worst thing come true again," said Tracey Baker, whose husband is recovering at home. "It's devastating. We both know exactly what it's like. The worst fear come true."
Gombosi was shot outside the Country Store Sunoco station on Main Street in Margaretville, a Catskills community, part of the town of Middletown, Delaware County.
"The body armor absorbed most of the blow," said Torres. "You will always get bruising."
Police located the van on Cemetery Road in a rural area of Middletown. Police agencies across the Southern Tier are continuing their search for Trim, who stands 5-foot-11 and has brown hair and blue eyes. He was last seen wearing a torn flannel shirt, an eyebrow ring and a ball cap, police said.
Just before 10 p.m. Tuesday, investigators were focusing on a narrow, remote stretch of Route 30, just outside of Grand Gorge. Troopers stopped cars and trucks on the two-lane road, and used police dogs at the area around a tire center. While traffic was stopped on the road, a search beam from a helicopter focused on the woods a few dozen yards away.
Margaretville, a normally quiet town, was previously best known for a massive flood in 1996, as the east branch of the Delaware River runs past the village.
A 30-year-old Margaretville man, who works and lives across the street from the station where the trooper was shot, said he was on his way home when he passed the trooper, who he said appeared to be speaking with someone while possibly checking a car. The man said he went upstairs to his apartment, heard a shot and ran downstairs in time to see the trooper pulling off his vest.
"I saw the cop going, 'I got shot. I got shot," said the man, who declined to give his name. "He was pulling his vest off, just really (upset)."
Anyone with information is asked to contact State Police at (607) 561-7400 or dial 911.
Contributing to this report are staff writers Anne Miller, Danielle Furfaro, Jordan Carleo-Evangelist, Jay Jochnowitz, Paul Grondahl, Mike Goodwin, Dan Higgins.
Joe
