News Releases
Office of Governor Gary Locke
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - October 8, 1999
Contact:  Governor's Communications Office, 360-902-4136

Locke expresses sadness, outrage at slaying of state trooper

OLYMPIA — Gov. Gary Locke today expressed his sadness and outrage at the news a Washington State Patrol (WSP) trooper had been slain in Pasco Thursday night while making a routine traffic stop.

The trooper, Jim Saunders, had been with the WSP for seven years, four of those in Kennewick, near Pasco. He and his widow have a 2-year-old daughter and another baby on the way. As a WSP cadet, Saunders was part of a detail that protected the governor's mansion in 1991 during Booth Gardner's administration.

Locke said, "Mona and I send our thoughts and prayers to Trooper Saunders' widow, his daughter and his entire family. His children will now have to grow up without their Dad – and that's tragic.

"I knew Jim Saunders. When I traveled in the Tri-Cities area as governor, he was part of the unit that protected me. In fact, I was just there a week or so ago and talked to Trooper Saunders about his work and his family, so this is a personal loss to me as well.

"Trooper Saunders was a seven-year veteran of the force and an outstanding trooper. I am outraged that he has been murdered. The police in Pasco and the Washington State Patrol are working around the clock to find his killer."

The last WSP trooper to be shot and killed in the line of duty was Frank Noble in 1972 in Sunnyside. The most recent trooper death in the line of duty was Steve Frink, who was on a motorcycle pursuing a car on Mercer Island in 1993, when his motorcycle hit a pillar.

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