(Tx) Trooper Shot During Traffic Stop Dies

S

Skyhawk

New member
Trooper Shot During Traffic Stop Dies
Attack Followed Seat Belt Dispute
Aug. 8, 2000

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) -- A Department of Public Safety trooper who was shot in the head last week during a traffic stop died late Monday.

Randall Vetter, 28, died after five days in the intensive care unit, Brackenridge Hospital spokeswoman Shannon Whitehead said.

According to police, Vetter was shot in his patrol car Thursday by Melvin Hale, 72, whom Vetter had pulled over to ticket for not wearing a seat belt. Justice of the Peace Macel Sullivan said Hale said he felt his civil rights were being violated when Vetter pulled him over.

Hale later surrendered after reportedly using Vetter's police car radio to call in the shooting. He faces an attempted murder charge, which will likely be amended to murder.

************************************************************

:( A sad day indeed.

Skyhawk
 
First let's pray for the family, then someone see if you can find who might be taking a collection for his family.
 
"I'm sorry, you're violating my civil right to not wear a seatbelt. Now I have to kill you."

Can this be real? Who, in their right mind, does this? Maybe that's a rhetorical question. We're used to hearng about cops getting shot by scumbag felons, but this is so bizarre, pathetic, and tragic. :(

The TX DPS probably is handling a fund for donations. I have donated several times in the past when LA cops have been killed, through similar funds. FYI.
 
This is very sad.

But will you please get off the seatbelt bullsh!t. It was about taxes! Not that it makes it right but it was about taxes, not seatbelts - that was just the straw that broke the camel's back.

------------------
Thane (NRA GOA JPFO SAF CAN)
MD C.A.N.OP
tbellomo@home.com
http://homes.acmecity.com/thematrix/digital/237/cansite/can.html
www.members.home.net/tbellomo/tbellomo/index.htm
"As nightfall does not come at once, neither does oppression.
In both instances there is a twilight when everything remains
seemingly unchanged. And it is in such twilight that we all
must be most aware of change in the air - however slight -
lest we become unwitting victims of the darkness."
--Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas
 
Earlier story:
http://www.apbnews.com/newscenter/breakingnews/2000/08/04/troopershot0804_01.html

Trooper Shot in Head Over Seat-Belt Ticket
Driver, 72, Said to Claim Law Violates His Rights
Aug. 4, 2000

By Richard Zitrin

KYLE, Texas (APBnews.com) -- A 72-year-old man who
insists he has a constitutional right not to wear a seat belt
shot a state trooper in the head with a high-powered rifle
after the officer stopped him for driving without one,
authorities said today.

The trooper, 28-year-old Randall W. Vetter, is in critical
condition in an Austin hospital, state officials said.

Vetter was in his patrol car writing a ticket for Melvin
Edison Hale of Kyle about 10:30 a.m. Thursday when Hale
walked up and shot the trooper in the head at close range,
Department of Public Safety spokesman Mike Cox said.

Hale then apparently
used the radio in
Vetter's patrol car to report that the trooper had been
shot, Cox said.

He attempted to drive away, but was apprehended about
100 yards away following a brief standoff with police.

Second seat-belt ticket

Hale told officers after he was arrested that he believes it
is his constitutional right not to wear a seat belt, Hays
County Justice of the Peace Macel Sullivan told
APBnews.com.

This was not the first time Hale was stopped for driving
without a seat belt, Cox said. Another trooper issued him
a ticket last Oct. 14 in almost the same spot in this community south of Austin, he said.

That first ticket for driving without a seat belt apparently enraged Hale, who allegedly pointed
a rifle at an off-duty trooper when he stopped at Hale's home early this year. The trooper,
Trampas Gooding, only wanted to ask if he could hunt on the property; Hale apparently
thought the trooper was going to serve him a warrant for not taking care of the first seat-belt
ticket he received, according to a memo Gooding wrote and circulated to police locally.

Gooding wrote that Hale said he would use deadly force on any officer attempting to serve
such a warrant and that he would "shoot it out" with officers.

Cox said he does not know if Vetter had read the memo.

Feud over $19,000 in back taxes

Hale, a retired crane operator and cattle rancher, also had a long-standing feud with Hays
County officials over a delinquent property tax bill and the county had begun proceedings to
foreclose on his property if he did not pay more than $19,000 he owes for 1982-93, county
Tax Assessor-Collector Luanne Caraway said.

Hale, a lifelong bachelor, never directly threatened Caraway, but a friend who lives on Hale's
property, Ed Bullock, told her there was potential danger if the county pursued the delinquent
taxes, Caraway told APBnews.com.

Bullock has been paying taxes on the property since 1994, she said.

Hale, who is being held in lieu of $1 million bond in the Hays County Jail, is charged with
attempted capital murder of a police officer.
 
Re "seatbelt bullsh*t"

quote: "Hale apparently
thought the trooper was going to serve him a warrant for not taking care of the first seat-belt
ticket he received, according to a memo Gooding wrote and circulated to police locally.

Gooding wrote that [Hale said he would use deadly force on any officer attempting to serve
such a warrant and that he would "shoot it out" with officers."

So it was about seatbelts. At least partially.
 
I suspect Mr. Hale will either die in prison (he's 72 now) or via lethal injection if natural causes don't come calling.

Do I see his point? Actually, I do sort of. But I don't see shooting someone over something that can (for the moment) be handled in court.

Mr. Hale is has seen his last day as a free man, folks.
 
Texas used to have a mandatory helmet law for motorcycle operators.

Some folks got together, signed some petitions and did some lobbying.

As of 1998, Texas no longer has a mandatory helmet law for motorcycle operators.

You don't like the seatbelt law, change it.

LawDog
 
Feud over $19,000 in back taxes

Hale, a retired crane operator and cattle rancher, also had a long-standing feud with Hays
County officials over a delinquent property tax bill and the county had begun proceedings to
foreclose on his property if he did not pay more than $19,000 he owes for 1982-93, county
Tax Assessor-Collector Luanne Caraway said.

This is what the deal was really about. The seatbelt thing was the what pushed him over the edge. Obviously he should not have shot the cop who pulled him over - he should have after the people that were screwing him on his taxes.



------------------
Thane (NRA GOA JPFO SAF CAN)
MD C.A.N.OP
tbellomo@home.com
http://homes.acmecity.com/thematrix/digital/237/cansite/can.html
www.members.home.net/tbellomo/tbellomo/index.htm
"As nightfall does not come at once, neither does oppression.
In both instances there is a twilight when everything remains
seemingly unchanged. And it is in such twilight that we all
must be most aware of change in the air - however slight -
lest we become unwitting victims of the darkness."
--Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas
 
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