The Associated Press
CANTON, N.Y. — A warrant for the arrest of a northern New York man who shot two state troopers last year was issued four months before the shootings.
Buy a state investigation into the handling of the Travis Trim case found that the warrant was never executed because of a lack of coordination among courts, the police and the probation department in Saint Lawrence County.
Trim shot a state trooper in Delaware County last April. The trooper survived, but the next day Trooper David Brinkerhoff was killed by friendly fire as state police stormed the farm house where Trim was holed up. Another trooper was wounded by Trim, whose body was later found inside the home after it caught fire.
According to the state report, the warrant to arrest Trim on a probation violation was issued in late December 2006, and faxed to the Saint Lawrence County Probation Department. The agency then shredded it in keeping with department policy to await the official copy.
But The Ogdensburg Advance-News reports that the county probation supervisor didn’t receive the original. He assumed it had been sent to police and didn’t follow up.
Trim’s original warrant was never received by any law enforcement agency and was never entered into the Warrant Entry System.