Victims' Determination, Compassion Recalled

By Jenna Johnson, Aaron C. Davis and Hamil R. Harris
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, September 29, 2008

A retired state police corporal who went to work as a civilian medical evacuation pilot. A police paramedic who was a new father. A mother who had volunteered as an emergency medical technician for four years. A teenager who had graduated from high school this year.

They died together early yesterday morning when a Maryland State Police medevac helicopter crashed in Walker Mill Regional Park in Prince George's County as it flew two injured teens from a car accident in Charles County.

Authorities identified those killed as pilot Stephen J. Bunker, 59; Maryland State Trooper 1st Class Mickey C. Lippy, 34; Tonya Mallard, 39, a volunteer emergency medical technician; and Ashley J. Younger, 17, one of the victims in the vehicle crash. Jordan Wells, 18, another of the vehicle accident victims, survived and was in critical condition.

Dawn Childs, Lippy's older sister, said her brother was a devoted husband and father who "died doing what he loved, the only thing he had ever wanted to do."

The family gathered yesterday at Lippy's home in Carroll County to comfort his wife, Christina, who gave birth to the couple's first child, Madison, in May.

"He only got to spend four months with his baby," Childs said, choking back tears.

Lippy wanted to be a paramedic since he stuck his arm through a glass door when he was 3 years old, Childs said.

"He had to have major surgery on his arm, and, I guess, because of that, being in and out of the hospital so long when he was 3," said Childs, 40, who said she still vividly remembers how Lippy would rush home from grade school to watch "Emergency!," the 1970s television show about paramedics and firefighters.

Lippy began working as a volunteer firefighter as a teenager, as soon as he could drive, Childs said. When he became a state trooper four years ago, he worked patrol for less than a year, Childs said, before applying for the aviation unit.

Bunker, married and the father of three children, was a state police officer from 1972 until his retirement in 1998. He returned to service as a civilian pilot for the department. He had lived with his wife, Sherry, in their Waldorf neighborhood for 20 years. Neighbors say Bunker loved his job and worked long hours.

"If you looked at him, you would say, 'He just looks like a police officer,' " said Rose Marie Drish, 42. "There was a lot of peace here in this neighborhood because of him."

Mallard, a volunteer member of the Waldorf Rescue Squad, was one of the first on the scene of the Charles car accident.

A group of Waldorf emergency workers was returning to Station 12 Saturday night when they noticed an accident on Smallwood Drive. Police said yesterday that the driver of a 2003 Ford Taurus lost control, crossed a median, hit several trees and then struck a 1994 Honda CRX. Police identified the Taurus driver as Wells and Younger as her passenger.

Station 12 sent two ambulances to the scene. On board one was Mallard, a mother of two who had been volunteering as an EMT since May 2004. The responders decided that the teenagers needed to be flown to Prince George's Medical Center for treatment, and Mallard said she would go along.

At 1:30 a.m. yesterday, Dan Stevens, Waldorf Volunteer Fire Department chief, received a call at home: The helicopter was overdue. When he tried to recount his initial reaction in an interview yesterday, Stevens began to weep. "I hoped there was a forced landing. I hoped that everyone was safe," Stevens said when he regained composure.

Stevens and dozens of other volunteers rushed to the station to wait for updates. At 2:45 a.m., police confirmed that Mallard had died.

At 5 a.m., about 40 volunteers gathered in a circle at the fire station and took turns saying how they felt, Stevens said. Many recounted their last encounters with Mallard, the tall, compassionate and friendly mother with an "infectious smile."

"People say, 'That could have been me. That should have been me,' " Stevens said.

Dozens of people stopped by Mallard's home in Waldorf to offer condolences to her husband, Ken, and their two sons, ages 11 and 15. Ken Mallard declined to comment.

Younger and Wells graduated from Westlake High School in June. Principal Chrystal Benson said both were outgoing and popular with classmates and teachers.

Younger moved to Waldorf from Northern Virginia in her junior year and was elected to be a class officer her senior year, Benson said.

Younger took high-level math classes and physics as a senior. She was also an aide in the guidance office, a position given only to students with high grades who have proven they are "really trustworthy and responsible," Benson said.

Wells is an active member of Lutheran Church of Our Savior in Bryans Road, where her father, Scott Wells, is a worship and praise leader.

The church's pastor, the Rev. Christopher Ogne, released a statement last night on behalf of Wells's family: "The family is painfully aware that there are four other victims in this case, and at this time, we are praying for God's comfort and blessing."