Mourners honor trooper who died in Va. helicopter crash
1 of 3 deaths at Aug. 12 protests
CHESTERFIELD COUNTY, Va. - Mourners filled the Southside Church of the Nazarene in Chesterfield, Virginia, on Saturday to remember Lt. H. Jay Cullen, the Virginia State Police trooper who died in a helicopter crash while patrolling the skies during a white nationalist and neoNazi rally in Charlottesville last weekend.
More than 1,000 people gathered at the funeral for Cullen, 48, remembering him as an avid outdoorsman, devoted family man and skilled pilot who listened more than he talked, and wouldn’t have preferred to be anywhere else as he watched over last Saturday’s demonstrations.
Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) said he considered Cullen, the man who flew him and his family for the past few years, part of his family. When McAuliffe would climb into the helicopter, he recalled, he’d slip on his headset and say “Jay, if you need me I’ll jump up front.”
“No governor, I’ve got this handled,” Cullen would reply, McAuliffe recalled to mourners’ laughter.
“Dorothy and I are heartbroken,” McAuliffe said. “It’ll never be the same when I step into that helicopter and not see Jay in that front right seat with Cullen on the back of his helmet.”
He was a serious, safetyconscious pilot and when the two did talk, Cullen was quick to mention his two sons, McAuliffe said.
“When I do get into that helicopter I will think of Jay and I’ll think what a silent giant he was,” McAuliffe said. “He was the best of the best of the Virginia State Police.”
It was the second time this week that the law enforcement community gathered to honor a colleague who died in the crash. The funeral for Trooper-Pilot Berke Bates, 40, took place Friday in Richmond.
The Bell 407 helicopter crashed hours after a car allegedly driven by Nazi enthusiast James Alex Fields Jr., 20, plowed into a crowd of counterprotesters Saturday, killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer and injuring 19. Fields was charged with seconddegree murder.
The three deaths last Saturday devastated Charlottesville, where officials said they never wanted the white supremacists to march on their town.
Still, there’s nowhere else Cullen would have rather been, as other officers were on the ground during a day full of clashes between white supremacists and counterprotesters, said Col. W. Steven Flaherty, Virginia State Police superintendent.
“He believed in his mission to protect and serve,” Flaherty said.
Flaherty described Cullen as an excellent listener, making him an “exceptional leader,” as well as a man with “unwavering integrity,” he said.