State Trooper Chad Walker. Photo credit: Texas DPS
The State Trooper who was shot multiple times near Mexia this last weekend no longer displays signs of viable brain activity, according to an update from DPS.
The department says Trooper Chad Walker remains on life-support, but will be able to donate his organs. The post says that this “final sacrifice embodies Walker’s actions through his life, and his service as a Texas Highway Patrol Trooper.”
Walker was heading southwest on Friday, March 26th around 8 pm, when he spotted a disable vehicle on FM 2838 near Mexia. As he pulled up behind the vehicle, the driver got out, and opened fire, striking Walker in the head and abdomen. Walker was rushed to Waco in critical condition.
Troopers then began a massive search for the gunman, who ran after the shooting, and was identified as 36 year old Dearthur Pinson Junior. He served a prison sentence for aggravated robbery in 2006, and was charged with trespassing in 2017.
A Blue Alert was issued Saturday morning, but canceled later that day, after authorities found Pinson dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in an abandoned home on State Highway 84.
Walker’s death is the third of a Central Texas State Trooper in the line of duty since 2017.