The man police say shot and killed Virginia State Police Trooper Chad P. Dermyer, 37, at a Richmond Greyhound bus station Thursday was a career criminal who, an ex-girlfriend said, “wanted to be one of those guys that just died killing police officers,” the Record reports.
Thirty-four-year-old James Brown III of Aurora, Ill.—who also allegedly shot and wounded two women in the bus station before being killed by two state troopers—had a lengthy criminal record in Illinois, including convictions for domestic battery and aggravated battery of a pregnant woman and charges of attempted murder and illegal possession of a firearm and body armor by a convicted felon.
The body armor possession charge, in retrospect, is particularly chilling: As Brown’s aunt, Edith Brown, told CBS News, “He wanted to be infamous ... in terms of having a showdown. He always praised those people who got into shootouts with police.”
