Trooper’s funeral remembers him as officer, family man

WABASH, Ind. – Speakers at the funeral for a state trooper killed in a roadside shooting remembered him Wednesday as a dedicated police officer, husband and family man.\nIt took about 45 minutes for all the mourners – including hundreds of officers from across Indiana and the country – to pass by the flag-draped casket of Master Trooper David Rich and fill the civic center where his funeral was held.\nRich, 41, was shot in the chest with a shotgun July 5 after he stopped to help a motorist he thought was stranded near Wabash. That driver then reloaded his shotgun and killed himself.\nState police Superintendent Paul Whitesell said during a eulogy that while he did not know why Rich had to die, the gunman had made threats about killing his family and possibly going into a school and killing children.\n"It may have been that David's intervention prevented a tragedy that could have been multiplied by many, many more," he said. "David was just the type that would have traded self for a group of school children, if it had to be."\nMore people lined the small city's downtown streets as the funeral procession went by on its way to the cemetery, with many holding small flags and placing their hands over their hearts.\nRich, a detective who was an 18-year state police veteran, was on his way home from the Peru, Ind., post when he spotted a sport-utility vehicle parked along U.S. 24 about 40 miles southwest of Fort Wayne. Police said the father of gunman Joseph M. Vultaggio Jr., 21, of Gaylord, Mich. had reported the SUV stolen a day earlier, but Rich did not know that before stopping to help.\nRich is survived by his wife, Connie, their 7-year-old daughter, Lauren, and 4-year-old twin sons Carson and Connor. Rich was from a law-enforcement family; his father is former Miami County Sheriff Jack Rich, a retired state trooper, and his brother is state police Capt. Bob Rich.\nHe was the third Indiana officer killed in the line of duty this year. The others were Floyd County sheriff's Deputy Frank Denzinger, who was fatally shot and another deputy wounded last month by a 15-year-old boy who then killed himself, and South Bend Police Cpl. Nick Polizzotto, who died in an April shootout at a motel during which the gunman also was killed.\nNew Jersey State Trooper Dennis J. Hallion, who as chairman of the National Troopers Coalition regularly attends funerals for fallen officers, said before the service that turnout for Rich's funeral was inspirational.\n"It shows that the community and the state of Indiana has come together under a common bond to pay respects, tribute and homage to a true, true hero," he said.\nHallion noted that Trooper Scott Patrick was fatally shot in 2003 after he stopped to help a stranded motorist in Gary, and state police Lt. Gary Dudley was killed last year in a crash during a charity bike ride.\n"What is the common theme?" he said. "Troopers helping their fellow man"