DELHI _ Two troopers who survived being shot during a manhunt on April 24 and 25 in Margaretville were honored by the Delaware County Shields on Wednesday.
Shields President Phil Seiden presented troopers Matthew Gombosi and Richard Mattson with plaques honoring them for their actions while attempting to capture Travis Trim, 23, of North Lawrence.
Approximately 40 Shields members, who are all active or retired police officers, gathered at the Olde Caledonia Restaurant in Delhi to laud Gombosi and Mattson.
Trim shot both men during an 18-hour saga that began when Gombosi stopped Trim in a routine traffic stop and ended with a fiery police raid at a house on the outskirts of Margaretville. The raid resulted in the shooting of Mattson and the deaths of trooper David Brinkerhoff and Trim.
Gombosi, 35, said Wednesday that he had no warning that Trim was going to pull a .22 caliber handgun from the waistband of his pants and shoot, striking the trooper in his protective vest.
"I fell backward," Gombosi said. "Then I got up and ran after him. I was going to shoot, but school was just getting out and there were kids all around."
Gombosi said he got in his car and radioed in what had happened and then intended to go after the man. He said Investigator Laura Gregory pulled up and told him to stay where he was because it was a crime scene and he had been shot.
Gombosi said the force of the bullet caused a bruise that eventually scabbed over.
"I wanted to help with the search, but they made me go to the hospital," Gombosi said.
Mattson, 40, of Milan, who has just undergone a fourth operation on the arm where he was stuck by a bullet from Trim's rifle, said he is probably never going to regain the use of his hand.
"All I can do is the basic needs stuff," Mattson said Wednesday. "I am probably going to have to retire, but it has been a good run."
Mattson said he plans to continue to use his training to work with tactical companies and interact with SWAT teams so "I can use what I have learned, because unfortunately, we will never stop having these events."
On a lighter note, Mattson said, he would also like to write children's books.
"I have spent a lot of time with my son in bookstores and reading books," Mattson said. "All I have to do is find the right character."
Mattson said his son had celebrated his second birthday four days before the Margaretville event.
Mattson, who was part of the seven-member Mobile Response Team that entered the house, triggering a firefight with Trim, said it was his "first involvement with a shootout situation.
"You don't think, you just go back to all your training and you react," Mattson said.
Mattson said he was pursuing Trim down a narrow hall into a room when Trim raised a rifle.
"It was a tough situation," Mattson said. "Seven went in and four guys shot back after Travis shot Dave in the vest." Mattson said after he was hit, he went into emergency medical technician mode.
"We are all trained as EMTs, and at first glance I knew it was severe," Mattson said.
He said fellow trooper Joe Schmidt helped him tie a tourniquet and then got him out of the house and into a helicopter before the second round of shooting began.
Mattson was airlifted to Margaretville Memorial Hospital, where the bleeding was controlled, before he was transferred to Albany Medical Center.
"Without Margaretville Hospital, I wouldn't be here," Mattson said. "I owe them my life. My artery was destroyed and I had lost about five pints of blood. They were the best of the best that day."
Brinkerhoff, 29, of Coxsackie, was shot in his body armor with a handgun round fired by Trim, but he was killed when a round fired by a fellow trooper returning fire struck him in the back of the head underneath his helmet, according to troopers.
About 69 shots were fired that morning by four troopers in the house; Trim was hit twice in the chest and twice in the head and may have died instantly.
The troopers grabbed their wounded colleagues and backed out. The house was surrounded most of the day while police sent in a robot to probe.
The house was destroyed that night by a fire apparently ignited by tear gas from police that landed on the bedspread. Trim was found dead that night holding a rifle in the burned shell of the home.
Gombosi said he has always been and continues to be "a safe and careful officer."
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Patricia Breakey can be reached at 746-2894 or at stardelhi@stny.rr.com.
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