Dad with history of DV, child abuse killed during attack on state trooper (Chesterfield County, Virginia)

Let's take this story in slowly and in order. Dad HERBERT J. WHEELER had a history of domestic violence. And once again, he got CHILD VISITATION ANYWAY--thanks to fathers rights. It doesn't take a genius to figure out what happens next.During his precious visitation time, Dad beat up his son badly enough for him to get his @$$ hauled back into court for another child custody hearing. I'm sure our fathers rights friends will assure us it was all lies and this poor dear was just misunderstood. But then this POS, er, misunderstood father, manages to get into a fight with a state trooper over reckless driving and shoots the trooper in the leg. The trooper manages to fire back, and Daddy eventually dies from his injuries. Yea, just a poor misunderstood dad....More like a piece of criminal scum who was coddled by the family courts, which just increased his sense of entitlement. Even over those who were not family members.

http://www2.timesdispatch.com/news/2011/dec/10/tdmain01-man-killed-in-struggle-with-trooper-faced-ar-1533790/


Man killed in struggle with trooper faced child-custody hearingHerbert J. Wheeler, 32, of the 100 block of Flintlock Drive, died Friday morning at Mary Washington Hospital.

By: Frank Green , Reed Williams
Published: December 10, 2011

A Chesterfield County man who died after he was shot during a struggle that also left a state trooper wounded had been accused this year of assaulting his young son and also had a child-custody hearing set for next week.

Virginia State Police declined to speculate on whether the child-custody situation or the pending assault case against Herbert J. Wheeler Jr. had any bearing on his actions Thursday afternoon, when he was involved in a struggle inside a state police car on Interstate 95 in Caroline County.

Wheeler, 32, of the 100 block of Flintlock Drive, died Friday morning at Mary Washington Hospital, where senior trooper Michael H. Hamer is recovering from a gunshot wound to his leg that he suffered during Thursday's struggle with Wheeler.

The incident occurred about 3 p.m. on southbound I-95 at the 116 mile marker. The southbound lanes were blocked for hours after the shooting and were not fully reopened until Friday morning.

Sgt. Thomas J. Molnar said state police were called about 1:30 p.m. Thursday to the scene of an abandoned vehicle in the center median of I-95 at the 120 mile marker.

Wheeler left the 2003 Chevrolet Tahoe there and fled into a wooded area after a special agent with the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles attempted to stop him for reckless driving. A search for Wheeler was conducted but he was not located, Molnar said.

A spokeswoman for DMV could not immediately be reached Friday evening.

At about 2:30 p.m., a tractor-trailer driver, who had stopped along I-95 to inspect a tire at the 118 mile marker, reported that a man — later identified as Wheeler — approached him and tried to get inside his truck. Wheeler fled back into the woods.

Hamer responded to the scene and found Wheeler walking along the right shoulder of the highway at 2:49 p.m., Molnar said.

"After placing Wheeler inside his unmarked patrol vehicle, a violent struggle ensued. During the struggle, the suspect attempted to take control of the trooper's service weapon when the weapon discharged" and Hamer was shot in the leg, Molnar said.

He added that the trooper "returned fire with another weapon" during the struggle.

Hamer, who was bleeding severely, got out of his car and was assisted by a man and two women. "The good Samaritans acted heroically after the shooting took place," Molnar said.

Wheeler worked at Fort Lee as a contractor in information technology, said his ex-wife, Bianca Wheeler.

Bianca Wheeler, who is from Germany, said Friday that she met Wheeler in Germany when he was working as a contractor for the military there. They were married in 2001, had three children and divorced in 2009.

Standing on the front porch of a home on her ex-husband's street, she declined to discuss the specifics of the child-custody situation or next week's hearing, but she said Wheeler had visitation rights and had spent a day with their children this week.

The pending criminal case against Herbert Wheeler involved a misdemeanor assault charge alleged to have occurred Aug. 14.

A criminal complaint filed in Chesterfield Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court gave the following account of what transpired:

Wheeler's son was staying the weekend at his father's home and had been playing with a football in a bedroom with his brother and sister, when he fell on a bed and broke a wooden slat.

Wheeler came into the bedroom and had the other children leave the room with his girlfriend. The handwritten criminal complaint appears to state that Wheeler slapped his son on the right and left side of his head, causing bruising and swelling. He also repeatedly pushed the boy's face onto a mattress, according to the complaint.

Wheeler also has had two misdemeanor assault cases withdrawn against him, in 2007 and 2008. Both cases involved allegations of assault against Bianca Wheeler.


In the first case, she alleged that Wheeler assaulted her during a struggle over her cellphone.

In the second case, she alleged that Wheeler was lying beside her in her bedroom and put his hand around her throat and pushed lightly, according to her criminal complaint. She reported that she had been scared that he would start to push harder.

Bianca Wheeler, breaking into tears periodically as she talked about her ex-husband Friday, said she didn't know what prompted Wheeler's actions that led to his death.

"That's what I'm trying find out — what happened," she said.

Hamer, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran, joined the state police on Oct. 16, 1996, and graduated from the 95th Basic School on April 18, 1997. He was transferred to the Spotsylvania County area from Dinwiddie County in August.