# Officer Down: Master Trooper David Rich - [Wabash, Indiana]



## kwflatbed (Dec 29, 2004)

07/05/2007
*Ind. trooper fatally shot while helping motorist*

*Officer Down: Master Trooper David Rich* - [Wabash, Indiana]

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ODMP

Biographical Info*
*Age: * 41

*Cause of Death:* Gunfire
*
Additional Information:* Trooper David Rich had served with the Indiana State Police for 18 years. He is survived by his wife, daughter, and twin sons.

*Incident Details:* Trooper Rich was shot and killed by a suspect on US 24, in Wabash, Indiana. 
Trooper Rich stopped to help a motorist he believed was stranded about one mile west of Wabash. Unbeknownst to Trooper Rich, the man was driving a vehicle that his dad had reported stolen earlier in the day. The suspect shot Trooper Rich in the chest with a shotgun and then killed himself.

*End of Watch:* Thursday, July 5, 2007

*Indiana trooper fatally shot on highway 
*
The Associated Press
WABASH, Ind.- A state trooper who had stopped to help who he thought was a stranded motorist was shot and killed Thursday by the man, who then reloaded the shotgun and killed himself, state police said.
Master Trooper David Rich was shot in the chest by Joseph M. Vultaggio Jr., 21, of Gaylord, Mich., on U.S. 24 in northern Indiana, state police Sgt. Tony Slocum said.
Slocum said Vultaggio was driving a sport-utility vehicle that his father had reported stolen on Wednesday.
Rich, 41, was an 18-year veteran of the state police. He was married with a 7-year-old daughter and twin 3-year-old sons, Slocum said.
"If that guy needed help, he would have gave him his shoes, his pants," Slocum said. "He would have done anything to help him, just as he's done here on many occasions at the post."
The shooting prompted authorities to shut down the four-lane highway in both directions around the scene, about 40 miles southwest of Fort Wayne, for more than two hours.
Rich is the first state trooper killed in a line-of-duty shooting since another officer was fatally shot in December 2003 after he stopped to a check a vehicle parked on an interstate exit ramp in Gary.


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## kwflatbed (Dec 29, 2004)

Fallen Indiana Trooper Laid to Rest



AP Photo/Michael Conroy​*Indiana Master Trooper David Rich, 41, was buried yesterday.*












AP Photo/Michael Conroy

Indiana State Police Superintendent Paul Whitesell comforts the wife of Master Trooper David Rich, Connie, after he presented her with the flag the covered the casket of her husband.

A fallen Indiana police officer was laid to rest on Wednesday. 
Hundreds of police officers from across the state, and the country, filled a civic center in Wabash today for master trooper David Richs funeral.
He was killed in a roadside shooting last week.
Photographs of Rich and his family, as well as his uniform and badge, were on display.
Governor Daniels, officers and others filed past Richs flag-draped casket to pay their respects.
Speakers remembered Rich as a dedicated trooper, husband and family man who loved spending his free time with his three children.
The 41-year-old Rich was an 18-year veteran of the Indiana State Police.

_Courtesy of __WNDU-TV_


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