VAN BUREN, Mo. (AP) - Missouri State Highway Patrol troopers mourned the death of one of their own Monday, even as they tried to determine who killed Sgt. Carl Dewayne Graham.
Graham, 37, a divorced father of a 4-year-old son, was found shot to death in front of his rural southeast Missouri home about 5:15 p.m. Sunday. A passer-by saw the body and called the patrol, said Roger Stottlemyre, superintendent of the patrol.
Graham had completed his shift and was still in uniform, and officials are investigating his death as a homicide. Though Graham was at home at the time of the shooting, the patrol characterized his death as in the line of duty, making him the 24th state trooper to die on the job.
No suspects were in custody.
Patrol Sgt. Marty Elmore said troopers were questioning several people and trying to identify if there were any "red flag" from investigations involving Graham.
"I think a lot of times when you get into the middle of a thing like this officers try not to let their emotions override the job," Elmore said. "The focus has to be on catching Dewayne's killer."
Elmore said Graham was "a real squared-away guy," outgoing with a big smile.
"He was a trooper's trooper, you might say," especially committed to arresting drunken drivers, Elmore said.
"I think the reasonable explanation (of the killing) is that it's related to the fact that he was a state trooper," Elmore said.
The shooting left this town of 850 residents shaken. Float Stream restaurant owner Janet Jackson said she was nervous about the fact a killer was on the loose.
"I never lock my doors but I went home last night and locked my doors," Jackson said.
Graham had been with the patrol 12 years. He was zone supervisor for Carter and Reynolds counties.
The patrol has set up a command post at the community center in Van Buren, about 150 miles southwest of St. Louis.
Graham was born in St. Charles County and graduated from Dexter High School in the Missouri Bootheel in 1986. He graduated from Southeast Missouri State University in 1990 with a bachelor's degree in criminal justice.
Graham joined the Highway Patrol in 1993. He was promoted to corporal in 1999 and became a sergeant in 2002.
Jackson said she had just spoken with Graham hours before the killing as he was leaving her restaurant, where he had lunch with the police chief. The two joked in the parking lot.
Graham always had a ready smile, but was a lawman through and through, Jackson said, recalling his military-like purposeful walk.
"Even if he was in civilian clothes, you knew he was in law enforcement," Jackson said.
Mary Crawford, executive director of the Van Buren Youth and Community Center, where Graham served on the board of directors and volunteered, recalled how he helped hand out food and worked with children at some of the center's events.
"He was a very, very nice man, a very upstanding individual - fair and honest," Crawford said.