Douglas Wayne Tripp, a 42-year-old veteran trooper with the Tennessee Highway Patrol, was fatally shot after a routine traffic stop at the Tazewell Muffler Shop. The stop occurred on the evening of May 18, 1991; Tripp was shot with a .22 caliber rifle while seated in his patrol car and was pronounced dead May 19, 1991. He left a wife and two daughters.

The driver stopped by Tripp was John Henry Wallen. Wallen was arrested and tried for the killing. He was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life, but an appellate court overturned that conviction in 1995, finding insufficient evidence of deliberation and that unrelated-crime evidence had been improperly admitted. On retrial Wallen was convicted of second-degree murder and later released from prison in 2008.

Tripp’s death deeply affected his community and colleagues; a bridge over the Powell River has been named in his memory. Does anyone have memories of Trooper Tripp or information about the case that hasn’t been publicized?