STATE TROOPER DEAD OF APPARENT SUICIDE

(02/14/2008)
Another West Virginia trooper, this time from the Romney detachment, shot and killed himself Tuesday night shortly after he was placed on administrative leave.

State Police in Hampshire County found Corporal V.J. Gall, 46, in his house Tuesday night when they showed up to ask him questions involving an investigation about him, according to Joe Thornton, Deputy Secretary for Operations & Media in the West Virginia Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety.

Thornton says Gall had just been relieved of duty pending the outcome of a criminal investigation involving him just hours earlier.

Details about the investigation have not been released.

Thornton said it appears that Gall shot himself with a gun that was found at the scene. It was not Gall's service weapon, since he had turned it in along with his badge as a part of his administrative leave.

Gall worked with the West Virginia State Police for over 10 years. He was not married and had no children.

Gall is the second West Virginia trooper to commit suicide in the last year. Trooper Marlo Gonzales, a former Calhoun resident, shot and killed himself last July inside his cruiser in Putnam County.

Since Gonzales' death, Governor Joe Manchin called for the formation of a committee to investigate trooper suicides.

The final report from that committee, just released, called for mandatory annual mental evaluations for troopers.