Walter Welch Jr.

Deadly force

Shortly before 7 p.m. after state police dispatchers received a 911 call about an erratic driver in a white pickup truck traveling westbound on Route 101. A trooper spotted the truck stopped off Exit 6 around the overpass. As the trooper approached the pickup, he asked the driver, Walter Welch Jr., if he'd been drinking. "A lot," reportedly said Welch, who then opened fire on the trooper. The trooper retreated and took cover and ordered Welch to disarm. When Welch didn't respond, the trooper shot through the back of the pickup cab four times. Some of rounds struck Welch, who was already dying from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.