No decision on extent of Virginia’s investigation

Thursday, Jan. 14, 1999 | 11:23 a.m.

A spokeswoman for the governor of Virginia said today a decision has not been made whether to send Virginia state troopers to Las Vegas to investigate whether one of their own acted properly in a high-profile incident last week.

Virginia State Trooper Tim Rice, one of Gov. Jim Gilmore's bodyguards, remained on administrative leave today. Virginia investigators are looking into whether Rice acted properly in firing at a man who stole the rental car in which Rice was to chauffeur Gilmore to a Las Vegas hotel last Friday morning.

It was the first time in the 20-year history of Virginia's Executive Protection Unit that one of its officers fired a gun in the line of duty, officials said.

Marcus Stone, 49, a drifter from Gouldsboro, Maine, and the suspect in that late-night car theft at a private terminal at McCarran International Airport, died 11 hours later in a spectacular Interstate-15 crash that injured two others.

Virginia State Police "may or may not have to send investigators to Las Vegas," Lila Young, Gilmore's assistant press secretary, said. "That decision has not yet been made."

Such a decision will not be reached until Virginia State Police Internal Affairs investigators study Metro Police reports of the incident, she said.

And, Young said, because this is a personnel matter, the outcome of that probe and whatever action may be taken against Rice may not be revealed.

Following the theft of the rented 1999 Lincoln Town Car a few minutes before midnight last Friday, Rice fired twice at the vehicle in the terminal's parking lot, police said.

There have been conflicting reports over whether Rice fired his .357-caliber service pistol at a fleeing vehicle or at an approaching vehicle that he felt was a threat to his safety or to Gilmore's, who was getting off the plane.

Metro Police initially said the trooper appeared to be acting in the line of duty and would face no charges locally for discharging his weapon.

Gilmore was in Las Vegas to address the Consumer Electronics Show.

Stone, while being pursued by police as he traveled southbound in the I-15 northbound lanes, hit a pickup and slid into an oncoming semi-truck. The crash tied up busy interstate traffic through much of Friday afternoon.