Trooper Scott E. Phillips
1965 - 1997

32 years old
Tour of Duty: 13 years
Died on August 19, 1997

Cause of Death: Gunshot

Date of Incident: Tuesday, August 19, 1997

Weapon Used : Rifle; Automatic

Suspect Info: Suspect shot and killed by other Offices

Trooper Phillips joined the New Hampshire State police in 1990. He was born in Hyannis, Massachusetts on January 4, 1965 and was raised in Lancaster, New Hampshire. He served in the United States Army Military Police Corps and was stationed in Panama from 1985 to 1989. He was an avid runner and took part in the annual Special Olympics Torch Run as well as being on the 21st Century Committee for the town of Colebrook.

On August 19, 1997, in Colebrook,  Trooper Phillips and Trooper Leslie Lord were shot and killed after Trooper Phillips had stopped the suspect for having too much rust on his truck. The suspect immediately exited his vehicle and opened fire on Trooper Phillips with an automatic weapon, wounding him in the hand. Trooper Phillips was able to return fire and emptied his entire magazine but did not wound the suspect, who was wearing a bullet proof vest.

Trooper Lord pulled up to the scene without knowing that shots had been fired and was shot before he even exited his patrol car. The suspect then returned and shot Trooper Phillips four more times, execution style, killing him. He then stole Trooper Phillips patrol car and drove to the office of a local newspaper where he shot and killed a part-time judge, with whom he had a long standing grudge, and a newspaper editor who had tried to intervene.

The suspect then drove into Vermont where he shot and wounded an officer who attempted to stop him. The officer's life was saved when a bullet struck his badge and ricocheted off. The suspect then stopped the patrol car and setup an ambush. Two Vermont state troopers located the patrol car and approached it with a canine unit. The canine alerted the troopers to the suspect who was in an ambush position on a nearby hill, giving the officers an opportunity to take cover as the suspect opened fire on them from the hill. Three other officers were all shot and wounded in the final shootout with the suspect at that location.

Upon searching the suspect's land officials found massive caches of booby trapped bomb materials and weapons hidden in underground tunnels.

He was survived by his wife, son  and daughter.