Highway Patrol Trooper Billy J. Zachary

Highway Patrol trooper Billy J. Zachary was killed Sunday afternoon when he was struck by a pickup truck while conducting a traffic stop on IH-20 near Monahans. Trooper Zachary had two vehicles stopped on the shoulder of westbound IH-20. He was issuing a citation to a driver when he was struck by a pickup truck driven by Mario Andres Valdez, 33, of Odessa. Trooper Zachary was thrown into the bar ditch separating the interstate from the frontage road. Trooper Zachary, 32, had been with the DPS since February 2004. He is the 79th DPS officer killed in the line of duty.