Pa. game warden investigating deer poaching is fatally shot

Associated Press

GETTYSBURG, Pa.

A Pennsylvania game warden was killed in a shootout with a suspected deer poacher, who was arrested with an apparent gunshot wound at a hunting camp about 11 hours later, officials said Friday.

David L. Grove, a 31-year-old wildlife conservation officer from Fairfield, was fatally shot after he pulled over Christopher Lynn Johnson late Thursday night near Gettysburg, police said. Grove had witnessed what he suspected was illegal night hunting with a spotlight and had pulled over Johnson’s truck about 10:30 p.m., according to police.

Grove called in the truck’s license plate before “a ferocious exchange of gunfire” occurred, state police Commissioner Col. Frank Pawlowski said. Johnson and his friend then fled, authorities said.

Police said Johnson had an apparent gunshot wound to the hip when he was caught, and he was treated at a hospital in York on Friday. Authorities recovered a dead spike buck near the crime scene.

Grove was pronounced dead at the scene. He had been shot four times, and the fatal wound was to his neck, Adams County coroner Pat Felix said. He was the first Pennsylvania game warden killed in the line of duty in 95 years.

The license-plate number that Grove was able to call in “was a critical piece of information,” Pawlowski said.

“That gave us somewhere to go,” Pawlowski said.

Johnson, 27, also of Fairfield, abandoned his vehicle at some point and was limping on foot when he flagged down a motorist and asked for help. The motorist took him to the hunting camp, and police were waiting when he arrived Friday morning. The truck was found nearby.

Johnson told police on the way to the hospital that he had shot Graves, authorities wrote in an affadavit. “He advised that he was a convicted felon in possession of a firearm and did not want to go back to prison,” they wrote.

Johnson also told officers he had thrown the weapon into the woods and that he had left the scene with a handcuff on his left wrist, which he said he shot off.

Johnson was charged with homicide, weapons and game offenses and other counts, and Adams County District Attorney Shawn Wagner said he likely would seek the death penalty. Court officials said Johnson didn’t have a lawyer.

“This was a malicious act,” said Pennsylvania Game Commission spokesman Jerry Feaser.