The funeral procession for former Coleville California Highway Patrol Officer Douglas Scott Russell, 46, who was killed in the line of duty on July 31, will pass through Carson Valley starting at noon today.
The procession is expected to cross the California-Nevada border and head north up Highway 88 and then across the Valley to Highway 395 and Gilman Avenue. The procession will then head south down Highway 395 to Coleville for a private family service.
According to the Associated Press, Russell was hit on Highway 50 about 45 miles east of Sacramento and airlifted to the University of California, Davis, Medical Center. The 22-year CHP veteran was pronounced dead at the hospital.
"Our officer was attempting to deploy the strip, and the suspect aimed his car at the officer and murdered him," CHP assistant commissioner Kevin Green said.
The chase began in the parking lot of an auto parts store in the Sacramento suburb of Rancho Cordova. Police were called to the shop to check on a man sleeping in his car, said Tim Curran, a spokesman for the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department.
"When we arrived and tapped on the window, he awoke, he saw the officers and immediately sped off," Curran said.
The suspect, identified as David Zanon of Sacramento, tried to hit a Rancho Cordova officer head-on during the pursuit, as well as another CHP officer deploying a spike strip, Curran said. Russell was the third officer Zanon tried to strike.
Zanon was apprehended and taken to Sutter Roseville Medical Center. Green said he had minor injuries and would be arrested after his release from the hospital.
Zanon is a registered drug offender with a misdemeanor warrant for resisting arrest, the sheriff's department said.
Russell, who is survived by his wife, is the second highway patrol officer to be killed on the job this year, spokeswoman Fran Clader said. Since the agency began keeping records in 1929, 212 state troopers have died in the line of duty.
