Missouri Highway Patrol Trooper Critically Wounded While Searching for Shooting Suspect
By Officer.com News
MISSOULA, Montana -- A Montana Highway Patrol trooper was critically wounded while searching for a suspect wanted in an earlier shooting early Friday morning.
Trooper Wade Palmer located a vehicle near the Evaro Bar and Casino matching the description of one involved in a shooting in Missoula before midnight, according to a news release.
The next officer to arrive on the scene, Trooper Alex Hiday, found Palmer still seat-belted in his patrol car with a gunshot wound. The suspect had fled the scene and Hiday and a Missoula police officer transported the wounded trooper to an ambulance at the intersection of Highway 93 and Interstate 90 before he was transported to St. Patrick Hospital in critical condition.
After an extensive manhunt, the Missoula County Sheriff’s Office took the suspect, Jonathan Bertsch, into custody without incident around 6:15 a.m.
The Department of Justice’s Division of Criminal Investigation and Missoula County Sheriff’s Office are investigating the shooting incident.
Palmer has been with the Missouri Highway Patrol since 2012 and is stationed in Detachment 112 in Missoula. In 2015, he was awarded the Patrol’s highest honor, the Medal of Valor, for his heroic lifesaving efforts at the scene of a multiple-vehicle crash involving a mother and her young children in December 2014.
Palmer has a wife and two young children.
Officer.com will provide more information on this story as it becomes available.
