Missouri State Highway Patrol Trooper Cory Stauffer has been on medical leave for weeks after a routine traffic stop took a horrible turn.
On Feb. 10, Stauffer conducted a traffic stop on a car that had allegedly been speeding on the Interstate 44. The driver, later identified as Galen Bradford Sailer, 27, of Maine, pulled off the interstate and eventually stopped at Waffle House, according to court documents released last month.
During the course of the traffic stop, Sailer allegedly made comments to the trooper about how his brother had recently been killed by an officer and then rolled up his window. Fearing Sailer was going to take off, Stauffer called for backup and headed toward his patrol car. Sailer allegedly circled the on-foot Stauffer with his car before striking him with the car, dragging him along the parking lot and pinning him against a steel pillar, the documents state.
After witnessing the horrific scene in the parking lot, patrons from the Waffle House ran out side and aided Stauffer in getting help and followed Sailer so he could be apprehended by the police, the report said.
For more on this story see Wednesday's LCR.
