🎙️ Voice is AI-generated. Inconsistencies may occur.
Texas State Trooper Chad Walker, an officer assigned to the Department of Public Safety's highway patrol unit, will be removed from life support after several days of hospitalization.
Walker sustained critical injuries while conducting a traffic stop in central Texas on Friday night. According to the state's public safety department, which has shared periodic updates about Walker's health since the incident occurred, the patrol officer was shot multiple times by a driver who exited his vehicle during the interaction. Texas DPS said Walker had previously pulled over to "assist" the driver.
The department confirmed that he remained hospitalized in critical condition on Sunday, and confirmed medical personnel's decision to discontinue ventilator use on Monday afternoon. Walker's organs will be donated, in a gesture that Texas DPS described as a "final sacrifice" representative of the officer's character while he was alive.
"After extensive life-saving efforts conducted by the Baylor Scott and White medical professionals, it has been determined that Trooper Chad Walker no longer displays signs of viable brain activity and he remains on life-support until he can share the gift of life as an organ donor," the department wrote in a statement.
"This final sacrifice embodies Trooper Walker's actions throughout his life and service as a Texas Highway Patrol Trooper. The Walker family is grateful for the continued support and prayers as they remain at Chad's side."
For more reporting from the Associated Press, see below:
Walker was shot Friday evening while stopping to help a driver ¶in an apparently disabled vehicle west of Mexia, a city about 75 miles (121 kilometers) southeast of Dallas, according to the statement from DPS regional director Todd Snyder.
Walker had not yet come to a stop behind the vehicle on the shoulder of the roadway when 37-year-old DeArthur Pinson got out of the disabled vehicle and opened fire, Snyder said.
Walker was struck in the head and abdomen and was later flown to a hospital in Waco, about 40 miles (64 kilometers) away.
Authorities launched a manhunt for Pinson, and he was reported dead Saturday. Pinson killed himself, according to Limestone County Judge Richard Duncan.
"Earlier tonight, a 36-year-old man was found deceased with what is suspected to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound at a residence on Highway 84, west of Mexia, Texas," wrote Texas DPS in a message shared to Twitter, confirming that authorities located Pinson on Saturday. "The deceased was the suspect in a shooting that injured DPS Highway Patrol Trooper Chad Walker Friday evening."
