Trooper Scott Patrick was shot and killed when dispatched to assist a stranded motorist on Interstate 80/94 (Frank Borman Expressway) eastbound at Grant Street in Gary.

   Upon his arrival, he saw the vehicle parked with two flat tires and observed a man walking up the nearby exit ramp. When he approached to offer help, the suspect pulled a handgun and opened fire. Despite being shot above his bullet-resistant vest, once in the neck, Trooper Patrick was able to radio for assistance and return fire.

   He was unaware that the vehicle had been stolen the previous week and died less than a half-hour later while in surgery at Northlake Methodist Hospital. 

   The suspect then hid behind the double set of tires of a flatbed trailer that had stopped at the scene. An assisting trooper arrived and was directed to where the suspect was hiding, who then fled on foot and jumped into the cab of another semitrailer.

   After he attempted to put the vehicle into gear and, after making threatening gestures toward the trooper, the suspect was shot multiple times but survived.

   The 19-year-old man was on parole at the time for selling crack cocaine near a school and had been sentenced to two years in prison but released after 90 days.

   In a death penalty case, he was later convicted of murder and auto theft, and was sentenced to life in prison without parole. The Indiana Supreme Court, in June 2008, affirmed both the conviction and sentence of the offender.

   Trooper Patrick, from Wheatfield, was assigned to the Lowell post. He was survived by his wife, a son who was born six months after his death, parents, sister and two brothers.

   His father served as chief deputy for the Pulaski County Sheriff's Department, one of his brothers served as a conservation officer with the Indiana Department of Natural Resources and the other served as an officer with the Indiana State Excise Police.