ROCKVILLE, Md. — The death of a paralyzed Montgomery County police officer more than 15 years after he was shot was ruled a homicide earlier this week in the state where he had moved, county officials said.
Officer Kyle Olinger, 53, died April 18 in Tucson, Arizona. He had been wounded in the neck in the early morning of Aug. 13, 2003, during a traffic stop in downtown Silver Spring.
The shot traveled through his throat to his spinal cord, severing it, said Rick Goodale, Montgomery County police spokesman. Although Olinger worked for a while afterward in desk jobs, he later received a medical retirement and he and his family moved to Arizona.
“I never expected this would happen,” his mother, Ruth Ann Olinger of Oley, Pennsylvania, told the Reading (Pa.) Eagle. “We are so proud of our son.”
► MAY 8: Prince George's County officer dies after accident on I-395
► NOV. 25: Winchester police officer dies in car wreck while responding to call
A memorial service for Kyle Olinger in the Washington area will be 11 a.m. Wednesday at Our Lady of Good Counsel High School in Olney, Maryland.
The officer, who was 37 at the time he was shot, had been on the job for about two years when it occurred, his family told the paper. He was paralyzed from the chest down.
He was born in Reading, served in the Marines and had his first police job in his hometown before being hired as a patrolman for the Montgomery County Police Department. He married his wife, Jeana King Olinger, after the attack and earned both bachelor's and master's degrees at the University of Maryland.
He also was working on his doctorate, according to his Arizona obituary.
“He was full of energy, agility and discipline,” his father, Harold Olinger, told the Eagle. “He occupied his time studying.” Before the shooting, Kyle Olinger had opened a martial arts studio in Mount Airy, Maryland.
► APRIL 2018: DC police officer dies in car accident
► SEPTEMBER 2017: DC police officer dies in Howard Co. crash
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan had ordered the state's flags lowered to half staff from April 22 to 30 in honor of the fallen officer.
"Lowering the flags is the least we can do to pay tribute to the life and memory of a true hero, Officer Kyle Olinger," Hogan said in a statement at the time.
After Kyle Olinger's death, state prosecutors were working to determine whether new charges would be filed. On Friday, the office still was in the midst of making a decision, Ramón Korionoff, spokesman for the Montgomery County State's Attorney's Office, said in email.
Terrence Green, who turned 37 last month in the Jessup Correctional Institution, was convicted in January 2005 of shooting Kyle Olinger. Green, 19 when he was convicted, now is serving a sentence of life plus 20 years.
"There are things worse than death," Kyle Olinger said at Green's sentencing. "For me, it's paralysis."
► AUGUST 2017: Va. officer dies in McLean police station parking lot
► JANUARY 2005: Cop shooter gets life plus 20 years
A man who was "so casual about shooting a police officer should be put away for the rest of his life," Kyle Olinger said in 2005.
Maryland abolished the death penalty in 2013. If a felon sentenced to life in prison becomes eligible for parole, the state's governor must personally approve it.
Kyle Olinger's name will be added to Washington's National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial, which lists officers nationwide who have died in the line of duty. He is the 19th Montgomery County officer to die because of his job and the first Maryland officer death this year.
Additional survivors include a son, Justin Olinger of Tucson; a stepson, Nathaniel King of Tucson; sisters Leanne Moyer of Oley and Rebecca Magee of Marlton, New Jersey; several nieces and nephews; and three grandchildren.
Contributing: The Associated Press
