Fallen State Troopers Honored With New Route 3 Signs

CONCORD, NH — Years ago, two stretches of Route 3 in New Hampshire were named after two New Hampshire State Police troopers who died in the line of duty more than two decades and now, new signs have been hung in their honor. Troopers Scott Phillips and Leslie Lord were killed on Aug. 19, 1997, by Carl Drega of Bow, in a killing spree in the North Country that also took the lives of a newspaper editor and a judge, while also wounding four other police officers.

State troopers recently – with the help of the New Hampshire Department of Transportation, the New Hampshire Department of Corrections, and the New Hampshire Trooper’s Association – installed new signs to replace ones that honored Phillips and Lord along Route 3, which had shown their age and wear and tear.

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The signs were posted on May 15, 2019, to re-honor their heroism and dedication to the residents of the North Country, noted Staff Sgt. Victor Muzzey of Troop F.

“The new signs were revealed around noontime at a small and humble ceremony that included members of the New Hampshire State Police-Troop F, New Hampshire State Police-Troop G, the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department, Colebrook Police Department, New Hampshire Department of Transportation,” he noted, “as well as family and friends at two separate locations along Route 3 in Colebrook in time for National Police Week and the upcoming Memorial Day Holiday.”

Phillips stopped Drega in Colebrook, according to press reports at the time, for having too much rust on his pickup truck. Drega exited his vehicle, armed with a shotgun, and fired at Phillips, striking him. Phillips returned fire and took cover but Drega followed and kept firing at him until he was killed. Lord, according to press reports, pulled up to the scene and was shot by Drega and killed before he was able to get out of his cruiser.