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Police, Firefighters Flock to Troopers’ Rites

<i> From Associated Press</i>

Hundreds of police and firefighters from around the United States and Canada lined up under cloudy skies Friday, their badges covered with black bands, to file by the caskets of New Hampshire state Troopers Leslie Lord and Scott Phillips.

A couple of blocks away, a polished black granite monument was placed at the site where a newspaper editor and a part-time judge were killed in the same shooting rampage that claimed the troopers.

Soon, the memorial will shine with facial engravings of all four of the victims in this northern New Hampshire town of 2,600 people.

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As workers at the local weekly newspaper watched from inside their offices, the headstone was lowered to the ground in Memorial Park, three feet from where editor Dennis Joos was killed Tuesday next to the News and Sentinel building.

A few feet farther, part-time Judge Vickie Bunnell was shot in the back as she ran for her life.

Several newspaper workers witnessed the shootings as they fled gunman Carl Drega minutes after he killed the two troopers in a grocery store parking lot.

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Drega had had run-ins with Bunnell over property issues when she was a selectwoman in the neighboring town of Columbia.

Drega, 62, died Tuesday in a gun battle with officers shortly after he torched his own home following the four killings. He had lined his property with explosives, armor-piercing ammunition and pipe-bomb casings and had motion sensors along his driveway.

Federal regulators ordered security inspections Friday at three nuclear power plants where Drega had previously worked, Reuters reported.

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Drega worked at the Indian Point 3 nuclear facility in Buchanan, N.Y., just north of New York City, until June 30, said Diane Screnci, a spokeswoman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

A union carpenter who was brought in during outages, Drega also worked at Vermont Yankee in Vernon, Vt., and the Pilgrim Nuclear Plant in Plymouth, Mass., she said in a telephone interview.

Screnci said the NRC inspection to start Tuesday will review security procedures used by the plants.

Dave Tarantino, a spokesman for Boston Edison, which owns and operates Pilgrim, said Drega worked in February and March repairing valves and “was never alone. He was always part of a team and always under supervision.”

The investigation into the arsenal on Drega’s property took a back seat Friday as New Hampshire’s top law enforcement officials attended the wake.

Gov. Jeanne Shaheen led mourners by the flag-draped caskets at the local elementary school.

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A private service was held for Joos on Friday. Bunnell’s funeral was planned for Sunday.

“They are police officers and they are troopers and it’s a very special bond,” said Illinois State police Sgt. Victor Morris. “To me, it’s an honor to be here.”

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