By Mark Scott and Joyce Kryszak
Albany, NY – Travis Trim used a rifle he found inside an upstate farmhouse to shoot two state troopers, killing one of them and wounding the other.
Mayor Bill Stanton of Margaretville in Delaware County says he's been told that Trim shot Troopers David Brinkerhoff and Richard Mattson on Wednesday with a high-powered rifle kept at the seasonal home where he was holed up. The home went up in flames when police staged an assault on the structure. Trim's body was later found inside.
The union representing state troopers is expressing outrage at this latest shooting. Dan DeFedericis, president of the State Police Benevolent Association, says the union supports calls in the State Legislature to bring back the death penalty for people convicted of killing police officers.
"We need to send a message to the criminal element that if you kill a police officer, it will not be tolerated," DeFedericis said.
DeFedericis is also sending out a warning of unscrupulous telemarketers who are calling people soliciting donations on behalf of the trooper's family. He said there is no such telephone fundraising campaign going on.
However, the New York State Trooper Foundation has established a trust fund for Brinkerhoff's daughter at an Albany area bank.
Donations (checks payable to the Isabella Grace Brinkerhoff Trust) can be made by mailing checks to:
New York State Trooper Foundation 3 Airport Park Boulevard Latham, NY 12110.
Further information is available at (518) 785-1002.
Brinkerhoff's funeral arrangements were announced late Thursday afternoon. Services will be held next Wednesday at the Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Delmar, New York. He'll be buried near his home in the village of Coxsackie. Brinkerhoff was a Western New York native and a 1995 graduate of Hamburg High School.