WSP trooper named year’s best
KENNEWICK – Maybe it was her toughness that made a panel of chiefs of police pick Kelly Kalmbach.
The six-year Washington State Patrol veteran last week was named North America’s top trooper by the International Association of Chiefs of Police.
Kalmbach, 48, still hasn’t returned to full duty since a shooting last June that damaged nerves in her left arm. She spent eight days in the hospital recovering from five bullet wounds to her left arm, right thigh and knee and left calf.
Kalmbach earlier had been named the association’s Western Region Trooper of the Year for her actions after stopping a suspected drunken driver while on patrol in Pierce County last summer.
“We knew Kelly was an excellent trooper before this tragic incident,” State Patrol Chief John Batiste said.
The Trooper of the Year award is given by the IACP after nominations from state-level police agencies in the U.S., two provincial agencies in Canada and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Four finalists are selected at a regional level to be considered for the North American honor.
Kalmbach, who was raised in Franklin County north of Pasco, moved to Kennewick in February. Her husband, Steven, is a retired WSP lieutenant.
The former Benton County and Federal Way emergency dispatcher joined the WSP in 2001.
Shortly before midnight June 28, while driving on State Highway 7 near Spanaway, Kalmbach saw a car driving in the opposite direction, weaving over the roadway.
She pulled the driver over, and the man initially was cooperative. He told her he had a gun and a concealed weapons permit, then followed directions when she told him to leave the gun behind as he got out of the car to take a field sobriety test, she said
Jack H. Sonntag, 24, the son of former Tacoma City Councilman Dick Sonntag and nephew of state Auditor Brian Sonntag, failed the sobriety test. When Kalmbach tried to handcuff him, he wrestled free, ran to his car, pulled out a semiautomatic 9mm handgun and started shooting.
Pierce County sheriff’s deputies caught up with Sonntag a short time later and shot and killed him after he pointed a gun at them.