Retired Utah Highway Patrol Sgt. Charles D. Warren, 67, who was shot and paralyzed nearly 25 years ago during a traffic stop near Springville, died May 16, 1994, at Utah Valley Regional Medical Center of complications from pneumonia.
The trooper, who was retired from the patrol several years ago and who was awarded a Purple Heart Medal in November 1992, was critically wounded when shot twice in the head by the driver of a car that the officer stopped on U-77 just west of Springville.Warren, who was in his 19th year with the patrol, was shot with a .22-caliber handgun as he walked up to the stolen car Sept. 2, 1969. The gunman, then in his early 20s, has been in and out of prison since that time.
The officer hovered between life and death for weeks after the shooting. He had been in and out of convalescent homes for several years and was admitted to the Provo hospital May 7.
Warren, who had been confined to a wheelchair, said in one interview that he remembered "everything that happened (the day of the shooting), even the flashes of the gun. It felt like getting hit on the head with a sledgehammer."
In a Deseret News story published in September 1970, the trooper said he had no regrets about becoming a trooper.
"Even if I knew I had to be shot again, I would still follow the same course. I love the law and the peace officers who wear the star," he was quoted as saying.
Trooper Warren was born in Ray, Ariz., and attended schools in Spanish Fork. He served in the U.S. Navy in the South Pacific. He attended what is now Utah Valley Community Community College. He was the second counselor in an LDS Ward bishopric at the time of the shooting, had been active in Scouting and was a scuba diver in Utah County search and rescue operations.
Services will be held at 11 a.m. Friday in the Springville 8th Ward, located at 355 E. Center, Springville. Friends may call at Walker Mortuary in Spanish Fork from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday and from 9:30 a.m. to 11 a.m. Friday at the church. Burial will be in the Spanish Fork City Cemetery.