Remembering David Rich

By Emma Rausch

emma@thepaperofwabash.com

WABASH COUNTY, Ind. – “Remember the sacrifice.”

The day David Rich died “we lost. We all lost,” Robert Land, Wabash County Sheriff, told The Paper of Wabash County.

On July 5, 2007, Rich, an Indiana State Police Master Trooper Detective, pulled over on his way home from work to assist a motorist seemingly experiencing vehicle trouble.

The motorist was stopped eastbound on U.S. 24 near the Stitt Street entrance.

“He was doing what he did best,” his brother Bob Rich said. “He stopped to try and help out a motorist and he had no idea that guy was a bad guy and was going to do bad things.”

As the trooper approached the driver’s side window, he was met with gunfire instead of the typical face of a troubled citizen as he had seen time and again during his 18 years on the department.

The vehicle’s driver, Joseph M. Vultaggio Jr., 21, of Gaylord, Mich., fired a shotgun out the window and fatally wounded Rich, and then turned the gun on himself.

The time was 3:55 p.m.

“He was prepared,” Bob Rich said. “He did have his gun on and his radio with him and his badge. He did everything right. Sometimes you can do everything right and have it not work out in a positive manner.

“It was a tragedy.”

The man behind the badge

A Miami County native, David Rich, the youngest of three children, continued his family’s legacy when he joined the Indiana State Police.

“He comes from a line of troopers,” Bob Rich said of his brother. “His great uncle came onto the State Police in 1935 and then his dad came on in 1958 and then I came on the State Police in 1984 and then Dave followed in everybody’s footsteps and came on in 1989.

“It just fit all of our personalities and our upbringing, and I think all of us loved it from day one until we all departed from it.”

Rich first served in Carroll County before relocating to the Peru Post in 1990 where he was assigned to Wabash County. During that time, he met and became close friends with Sgt. Jan Maller, who was formerly a master trooper like Rich.

He took to heart his duty to protect and serve, Maller said.

“We’ve been best friends after he came over (to the post) in 1990 … and I was the best man at his wedding,” Maller said, later adding, “I really enjoyed Dave’s company, his friendship and his sense of humor. He had an excellent sense of humor. Knowing that he’s there, got your back was a great feeling.

“Dave was real big on community. He enjoyed helping out with his kids’ soccer and baseball. I think that’s what Dave really liked most was the community atmosphere of Wabash County and the Peru Post is also a close-knit family.”

While patrolling Wabash County’s roads was his duty, Rich ingrained himself into the community, according to his brother.

“I think he was just so community oriented and I think that Dad gave that to us, that it’s all about the community,” Bob Rich said. “You know you always get more satisfaction seeing someone else thrive and win at things than yourself. That’s just how we were raised and, again, Dave just loved the community, he loved people, but dealing with people, he was a natural at it. If you were going to put Dave Rich in a category, it would be police officer, paramedic, firefighter, something like that. … I think he just enjoyed going to work every day.”

“You couldn’t ask for anybody better,” Sheriff Land, then ISP commander of the investigations division and Rich’s boss, said. “In the group of guys I had, he was the entertaining one I should say.

“Within a group of guys, and we’re all tight-knit, if you’re serious all the time, things get a little rough. So yes you have to have that downtime. He provided that to us just by being Dave.”

In 1998, he married his wife Connie, of Wabash, and together the couple had three children, Lauren, Carson and Connor.

No matter if it was his professional or personal life, Rich “was the same off duty as he was on duty,” Maller said.

“And I think that’s another true testament to his character, his attitude,” he explained

He was also known for bringing laughter into everyone’s days, Maller continued.

“He was always up for fun, always willing to help out, always enjoyed having a party or a get together,” Bob Rich said, “but he always said, ‘We’re not going to make this a project.’ That was his famous line, and then he’d have a big project and make a big deal out of it.”

Rich was a man who got the job done, he continue.

“Dave always knew when to be serious, when to take matters to a higher level,” he said, “but he was really good about bringing a situation that was tense and bringing it down to where everybody could work through it.”

He was considerate of his fellow officers and collaborated regularly to solve cases, according to Wabash Mayor Scott Long. Back then, Long served as a Wabash Police Department detective.

“We were both on the road as he was a road trooper and I was hired on at the police department, and we got to know each other really well,” Long said. “Then David, he became a detective for the State Police and I became a detective for our department, and we interacted not daily, but frequently.

“We used to solve cases over breakfast at Arby’s,” he later added. “We’d start talking about cases. I may know something about a case he’s working, he might know something about a case I was working. We solved more than one case. The group of officers, we would have breakfast together and talk about what was going on.”

Rich stopped by the department, sometimes to work on paperwork and other times to simply drop by.

“Every time Dave would walk into our department, first thing he’d look at me and say was ‘How’s Scott?’ every single time,” Long said. “He’d do that to the chief or whoever else was there. Then when we were off-duty, it was common for him to bring his kids into Rock City (Café) for breakfast on Saturday and I’d take my kids down there for breakfast occasionally.

“He was ingrained in the community for sure.”

The day that shook the county

Leading up to 3:55 p.m., it was a typical day for Rich, Bob Rich, Long and Maller.

Long was working at his desk in the Wabash Police Department. Maller was at home, mowing the yard.

Rich had just finished his shift at the Peru Post and called his father, Jack Rich.

“He was on post command when he got killed and he called me on the phone and he said, ‘Dad, I’m heading home,’” Jack Rich said. “He said, ‘I’ve completed everything here.’ But the day before, he went up to our deer hunting location and he said, ‘Dad, we’ve got to do something about that bridge.’ He said, ‘I don’t think it’s going to make it through deer hunting season.’

“And I said, ‘Well, we’ll think about it. We’ll get Bob and we’ll think about it. That’s the last I talked to him. He was headed back to Wabash.”

Rich’s brother was helping new troopers celebrate the start of their careers.

“I was a captain (at the time) and I was down at the family day for the new recruits (in Indianapolis),” Bob Rich said. “I was down there and was coming home when it happened. You know, you go from seeing all these young people starting their careers and their families are happy and excited and you’re motivated and happy for them. Then half an hour up the road, this (tragedy) happened.

“When we were coming home, they called the guy driving, he was a lieutenant. He broke the news to me. It came as a surprise. He said, ‘We need to get back to headquarters.’ They flew me back to the Peru Post by helicopter.”

Long wasn’t contacted. He knew something was amiss when one of the WPD officers drove by.

“The office I had (at the WPD) faced Manchester Avenue and I heard a police car coming north and I knew it was Bob Pilgrim in an Explorer driving faster than we normally drive,” he said. “I had a portable radio on my desk and I turned it on and I heard Matt Benson call in, say, ‘Officer down. We’ve had one shot,’ something to that effect.

“So I ran into the chief’s office, Charlie Smith was the chief at the time, and I said, ‘Chief, I don’t know what’s going on. Benson just called in officer down, 24 and Stitt.’ We both left the station … and headed that way.”

He wasn’t the first to the scene, but he wasn’t far behind.

“The best way to describe it is surreal,” Long said. “I think to a point every officer that showed up, you could see the initial shock on one person’s face, but immediately the training kicked in and we all proceeded to do what we could to assist at that scene.

“That day we all took it personal.”

Word of Rich’s death reached Maller much later.

“The ironic thing was just before that week that Dave got killed, (the department) has a thing where we give a contact document to the post to be notified if something would happen and Dave had put me down and I had put him down,” Maller said. “I didn’t know anything had occurred for about an hour.

“I would describe Dave as a people person,” he later added. “He really enjoyed people, he enjoyed helping people and that’s one of the ironic things that just shows you the person he was was how he was killed. He was killed helping a person … and I think that’s a testament to who he was.”

Rich’s death was a shock for everyone, the community included, his brother said.

“You know, when this happens, people survive,” he said. “This family stayed strong, but it messes with you, it messes with the family. You just wonder how life’s path would have changed had Davey still been around, but you keep on moving forward and everyone hangs in there.

“Time doesn’t erase it. That’s for sure.”

Rich’s father questions if he played a role in his son’s death.

“You know, he kind of learned that from me,” father Jack Rich said. “He used to see me off duty, I’d stop and help somebody and it’s probably my fault that he was doing that, but he would have done that anyway.”

Rich was laid to rest on July 11, 2007.

Troopers and officers from around the state and country flocked to Wabash County to pay their respects. Area residents lined the streets to watch the funeral procession pass by on its way to Friends Cemetery in Wabash.

The procession was so long that by the time the first car reached the burial site, the last car hadn’t left the Honeywell Center, where the services took place, according to Long.

“People were lining the streets and they were holding flags up and waving flags,” Jack Rich said. “I think they stretched clear through town and out into the country. Every house we went by, people were standing out.”

“And they (the community) have continued to support the family and Dave and his legacy,” Bob Rich added.

A hero unforgotten

“Ten years after, we still think of him every day,” Bob Rich said. “You never forget him and you think about the good times.”

To each person, the memories and conversations are different.

“We knew that his friends and family wouldn’t forget Dave, but the community in general hasn’t,” Maller said. “A lot of people still talk about him and I think that also speaks of his character.”

In the Sheriff’s office, Land keeps Rich’s photo button near his computer and a copy of his funeral displayed on the windowsill.

In Wabash County and Mexico, Ind., five memorials are dedicated to Rich’s memory. The memorials include the Indiana State Police Master Trooper Detective David Rich Memorial Park, a stone monument at Friends Cemetery, a cross at the site of his death on U.S. 24, a tree in Wabash City Park and a baseball park in Mexico.

“The people in Wabash County, the police agencies, the firefighters, the emergency services and the city and the citizens have been fantastic,” Bob Rich said.

“The F.O.P (Fraternal Order of Police) have taken good care of the cross out on U.S. 24,” Jack Rich added. “We appreciate that.”

“And in some other populations, they say it’s a tragedy and then they move on, except for the family and close friends,” the younger Rich continued, “but Wabash has really embraced David and that really says something about the community.”

Remember the sacrifice, Land stressed.

To Long, Rich is a hero.

“I think it’s important we don’t forget because Dave sacrificed his life and he may have potentially saved many other lives,” he explained. “The story was that this young man, the vehicle he was in was his dad’s company car and he had made comments that he was going to kill his family or go into a school and shoot kids. So I like to think that Dave prevented possibly a Sandy Hook Elementary School.

“Why did (the car) break down right there? What was his intent? Where was he going to go? … Why did he turn off (U.S.) 31 onto 24? Why didn’t he keep going straight? … Why did everything have to play out the way it did? … I don’t know, but that’s the way that I like to think. That Dave saved other lives.”

Rich’s death was a tragedy and an example of the risk all officers face every day, he continued.

“The people in law enforcement sacrifice every day,” Long said. “They sacrifice their personal time. They sacrifice their family gatherings, unable to attend, sacrifice a lot of holidays and unfortunately officers do make the ultimate sacrifice and sacrifice their lives. It takes a special person to do that.

“People in that profession hug their kids a little tighter, tell their kids they love them a little more and their wives and their other family members, because quite frankly you never know when you walk out that door if you’re ever going to see them again. The families have to live with that thought also.”

Following July 5, 2007, Long penned a letter expressing his grief and thoughts on the loss of a fellow brother in arms.

Its final line is still true to this day, he told The Paper.

It reads, “Scott’s fine, but he’ll never be the same.”