Walter graduated from the Virginia State Police Academy 18 years and six days ago, Flaherty said, and his first patrol assignment as a trooper was in Fairfax County.

He was transferred to the Chesterfield-Powhatan field office in 2005, and later joined the police academy staff as a K-9 officer, Flaherty said. He was promoted to the rank of special agent in 2010 and had been assigned ever since to the drug enforcement section of the department’s Bureau of Criminal Investigations in Richmond, the colonel said.

“Michael is the 63rd member of the Virginia State Police to be killed in the line of duty since 1928,” Flaherty said. “And he is the 11th in the last 11 years.”

In addition to his wife, he leaves behind three children: Austin, 14; Mason, 9; and Addie, 6.

Flaherty said Walter was especially close to the Richmond police officer who was with him Thursday night when he was shot.

“I’ll tell you that there’s no one else that Special Agent Mike Walter would have rather been with than the Richmond officer he was with last night,” Flaherty said. “They were extremely close and they worked together for quite some time. And we thank that officer for his immediate response and the aid that he rendered right here.”