The Associated Press
GRIFFIN, Ga. (AP) -- Hundreds of police from across the state remembered a Georgia State Patrol trooper Friday who died during a police chase.
The patrolman, Tony Lumley, 36, was honored at his funeral service by a long procession of police cars that traveled from Atlanta to Griffin with their blue lights flashing.
“The brotherhood of law enforcement is strong,” said trooper Larry Schnall. “We come out for one another.”
At the funeral at the First Assembly of God Church, Gov. Sonny Perdue got choked up while he was speaking. He then thanked Lumley’s family for his service to the state.
“I was proud that he was a trooper,” Schnall said. He was “crisp, polite and professional -- nothing but good things to say.”
Schnall died Tuesday after his patrol car collided with an armed robbery and carjacking suspect and then veered off the Ga. 16. The trooper’s vehicle went down an embankment, overturned and came to rest against a steep bank.
The suspect, 26-year-old Kenneth Brad Medlock, was treated for minor injuries. He’s being held in Clayton County Jail.