State Trooper Damon Allen wanted to be "the guy that people turned to when they needed help," a close friend said Friday. "That's just the way he was built." The trooper died on Thanksgiving Day after being shot near Fairfield in Freestone County during a traffic stop by a man later identified by police as Dabrett Black, 32, of Lindale. The Texas Department of Public Safety said Thursday that "preliminary information" indicated Allen was shot with a rifle as he returned to his patrol vehicle. Black fled the scene and was captured in Waller County, nearly five hours into a massive manhunt for him was announced by Texas authorities. Black was charged with capital murder on Friday and is being held in the Brazos County jail in Bryan.
Allen is the first Trooper to die in a shooting incident since 2008, according to the DPS. But his death comes only a few weeks after another DPS trooper, Thomas Nipper, was struck and killed by a pickup truck during a traffic stop on Interstate 35 in Temple. Allen, 41, grew up around Mexia and was a 15-year veteran of the Highway Patrol. He married his high school sweetheart, Kasey Allen, in 1993 and they had three children: daughter Kaitlyn, in her early twenties, 18-year-old son Cameron and daughter Madison, who is in third grade. "I'd say he was a family man first and a friend second, and a cop third, probably," Bell said.
Trooper Damon Allen
Allen loved going to Galveston to spend time on the beach, Bell said. He also loved driving his Jeep, and he'd play golf whenever he got the chance. "He was the definition of a gentleman," Bell said. "He was fair and polite with everyone he came in contact with. He treated everyone like they were a friend." In August, Allen was given a DPS Lifesaving Award for saving a Wortham man's life. When a woman called 911 because her husband was having a heart attack, Allen overheard the call and responded, then gave the man CPR for several minutes before medical responders arrived. Afterward, Allen didn't even mention it to his closest friends, Bell said. "As close as we were, I had to hear about that from somebody else."
A family friend started an online fundraiser that had raised more than $2,000 Friday afternoon, and the nonprofit 100 Club pledged $20,000 to Allen's wife and children. Executive director Rick Hartley said the group, which supports dependents of law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty, will meet with the family to figure out how to "wipe out their debt" and send his children to college. Meanwhile, flags were lowered to half-staff Friday in Mexia and all of Limestone County. "I think everybody is still trying to process this and how needless this really is," said Randy Barnes, a retired Department of Public Safety sergeant who was Allen's supervisor early in the trooper's career. Barnes used to go out on "check rides" with the new troopers to observe them in action, he said. "Damon was one of those guys that I actually looked forward to going out and riding with," he said. "He was funny, but he did his job and he did it well. From the very start, he just knew how to do his job."
MORE