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Honoring fallen troopers

‘It doesn’t get any easier’

Mirror photos by Greg Bock / Eric Weaver (below), whose son Trooper Landon Weaver was shot and killed while responding to a call on Dec. 30, 2016, greets Trooper Cpl. Garry Ford at Fairview Cemetery in Martinsburg on Wednesday. Ford, along with Trooper Cpl. Michael Davis, pictured behind the pair, work out of the Huntingdon state police station, where Trooper Weaver was assigned, and were part of a detail of state troopers who visited the fallen trooper’s grave on Wednesday as part of the Pennsylvania State Police Day ceremonies that remembered the 98 troopers killed in the line of duty since the inception of the state police on May 2, 1905.

There isn’t a day that goes by that Eric Weaver doesn’t think about his son, Trooper Landon Weaver, who was killed in the line of duty on Dec. 30, 2016.

“It doesn’t get any easier. You learn to manage it better,” Weaver said Wednesday about the loss of his son as the Weaver family, state police, local officers and members of the community gathered outside the Troop G barracks in Hollidaysburg to remember Trooper Landon Weaver and the other 97 state troopers who lost their lives while serving the public since the inception of the Pennsylvania State Police on May 2, 1905.

State police Sgt. Lucas Rankin called it “a day of reflection of over a century of honorable service to the citizens of the commonwealth” as he called the annual Pennsylvania State Police Day service to order. Rankin said it was a day to remember the fallen and their dedication to the law enforcement profession as well as a day to comfort and show gratitude to their families. It was a day to remind them they are “never alone and never forgotten,” Rankin said.

Capt. Jeffrey Fisher, commanding officer of Troop G in Hollidaysburg, said Trooper Weaver, a native of East Freedom, was a “beloved member of the Huntingdon station” and that the trooper, who was shot and killed while handling a protection-from-abuse case near Hesston, Huntingdon County, on Dec. 30, 2016, was watching down over his family and fellow troopers.

In all, Troop G has lost five troopers in the line of duty, Fisher said. All, he said, were the “true definition of soldiers of the law.”

Blair County District Attorney Richard Consiglio spoke about the dangers of the job that the public, and even himself, can’t truly fathom.

“When a trooper stops a vehicle on the highway and approaches, you never know what will happen,” Consiglio said, noting that during his 12 years in office, 12 troopers statewide have lost their lives.

Consiglio said two events have shaped his understanding of the perils faced every day by the state police — Trooper Weaver’s death and the Dec. 21, 2012, Geeseytown shooting spree that ended when three state troops stopped a gunman who had killed three people.

Consiglio said when Trooper Weaver, who had been married only six months and had joined the state police in December 2015, was killed, “all his dreams, all his hopes — all he had” was lost.

The shooting spree in 2012 could have ended the lives of the three troopers who rushed to stop the gunman, Consiglio said.

“I mention it because, in both cases, the illustration is the danger these troopers face every day,” Consiglio said.

Consiglio said while the day was about remembering the fallen, it was important to also honor those troopers who continue to serve.

“God bless and keep the fallen,” Consiglio said. “And God bless these troopers.”

After the ceremony, a detail of troopers and the Weaver family, including Trooper Weaver’s widow, Macy; his mother, Christine; father, Eric; and brother, Larett; traveled to Fairview Cemetery in Martinsburg to pay their respects at the trooper’s grave.

Trooper Dave McGarvey, spokesman for Troop G, said that the day, which also included displays of various state police equipment and special units, is meant to honor the long, proud tradition of the state police and remember that tradition came at a cost — the 98 troopers who were killed in the line of duty.

“They won’t be forgotten,” McGarvey said. “It’s as simple as that.”

Before heading out to the cemetery, Eric Weaver took a few minutes to talk with reporters about his son and the ceremony.

“Chris and I — It’s hard to put into words. Chris and I would have never dreamt of this in a million years, especially in rural Huntingdon County,” Eric Weaver said of his son’s death. “Some­times it is like it just happened. It’s something you always think about.”

He said his son never looked at what he did as a trooper as heroic, that he was just doing his job, but Eric and his wife were proud of him in everything that he did throughout his life. Landon worked hard to become a state trooper, and they let him know how proud they were of what he had accomplished and how much they loved him.

“It’s overwhelming,” he said of the support from the community since their son’s death, which he added continues to this day. Wednes­day’s ceremony is both a reminder that the troopers are there for them and that Trooper Landon Weaver’s name won’t be forgotten.

“When you’re a parent, everything is about your children, I think,” he said. “After my wife, Chris, and I are gone, Lan’s going to live on forever. Physically, we can’t have him here, so I guess this is the second best thing — so he’ll never, ever be forgotten.”

Mirror Staff Writer Greg Bock is at 946-7458.

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