An alert Virginia State Police trooper used a license plate reader to help track down the suspect in the brazen killing of two television station crew members Wednesday.
Trooper Pamela Neff was searching for Vester Lee Flanagan II along with countless other law enforcement officers and was sitting at the interchange of Interstate 81 and Interstate 66 when she received the license plate number belonging to the suspect, according to The Richmond Times-Dispatch.
She entered the number into her plate reader around 11:20 a.m. and instantly received a hit. Data captured by the cameras mounted on her patrol car had spotted the suspect's vehicle less than three minutes earlier.
"With the information coming through, I knew I had the vehicle," the 11-year veteran of the force said during a news conference.
After the database hit, Neff went into pursuit of a Chevrolet Sonic that officials say Flanagan rented and called for backup after spotting the vehicle at 11:24 a.m. The troopers attempted to pull over the vehicle before it veered into a median embankment a few minutes later.
Flanagan was found inside the vehicle with a self-inflicted gunshot wound. He was flown to Inova Fairfax Hospital where he died just a few hours later.
Police officials said the attempt to stop the suspect was timed to avoid a single-lane work zone and other interstate traffic.
"There were no other vehicles in front of him except for law enforcement and no other vehicles behind him except for law enforcement," Neff said.
The trooper said that she and her colleagues relied on their training while hunting down the suspect.
"We have some of the best training in the world," she said. "The only thing that kicks in is our training. We don't have time to think about personal emotions."
