Margaretville, N.Y. – Authorities recovered a body Wednesday night from the shell of a house destroyed by fire after police raided it. They had been searching for a man suspected of shooting three New York state troopers, one fatally.
Police could not immediately confirm the body was that of Travis D. Trim, a 23-year-old from northern New York whom police had been looking for since a trooper was shot during a routine traffic stop Tuesday in rural upstate New York. “The body was slumped in a doorway holding a rifle,” said Preston Felton of the New York State Police.
Just before the flames erupted, police fired a “nonincendiary” tear-gas canister into the home, Felton said. But they weren’t sure how the fire started.
Felton said Trim might have set the fire, or a tear-gas round could have ignited something.
It was unclear who owned the property.
The first shooting Trim was accused of occurred Tuesday, after a trooper stopped him in a stolen minivan for a minor traffic infraction in the Margaretville area.
When Trim failed to provide identification, Trooper Matthew Gombosi told him he was under arrest, said Felton, acting superintendent of the State Police.
Then, Felton said, Trim pulled a handgun from his waistband and shot Gombosi. The officer’s body armor kept him from being seriously injured, but the suspect escaped.
Police swept the area and found the stolen Dodge Caravan abandoned nearby.
Wednesday morning, Troopers David C. Brinkerhoff and Richard Mattson were shot while searching for Trim, Felton said.
Brinkerhoff, who was shot in the head, died shortly afterward.
Mattson, wounded in the left arm, was in serious but stable condition after surgery.
Brinkerhoff, 29, an eight-year member of the state police, is survived by his wife and a 7-month-old daughter.
