Virginia Beach police Facebook post recalls officer killed after stopping to help at crash scene in 1991

VIRGINIA BEACH

George Wayne Starr, wearing his police uniform, stopped alongside the interstate between Birdneck and First Colonial roads to help at an accident scene.

The officer, in his mid-20s, was off-duty. His own truck, with its lights flashing, was parked alongside what is now Interstate 264. He directed traffic and another driver, Joye Compton Waldrop, also stopped to help.

Then, at 4:30 a.m., a drunken driver slammed into the crash scene killing Starr and Compton. An Escort driven by Sean Armao, 19, slammed into the accident scene, throwing Starr 131 feet. It severed Starr’s leg at the knee and killed him instantly. Waldrop was crushed between two cars.

The crash happened 25 years ago today.

A memorial to Starr is posted today on the Virginia Beach Police Department Facebook. Starr, the post notes, had served as an auxiliary Beach officer for only three months. He had spent six years before that in the Navy.

The crash stunned Virginia Beach residents at the time. Armao’s blood alcohol level was .07, below the legal limit for drunken driving, but the 19-year-old was convicted of manslaughter in April 1992 and sentenced in June 1992 to 20 years in jail. Ten years of the sentence were suspended.

The incident also spurred Starr’s brother, Frank, to lobby for tougher DUI laws in Richmond and to speak to groups about drinking and driving. A post on the Officer Down Memorial Page - written by someone who claims to be Starr’s little brother – says the author became a police officer because of Starr’s example.

Starr, according to a Pilot interview with his brother, had been someone who like to get things right. His badge, knocked away from his body during the crash, was found scraped up in the back of a truck.

Starr, who grew up in Alabama, left behind his parents, his wife and three brothers, according to the memorial page.

His brother, Frank, could not be reached for comment this morning.

In the 1993 Pilot interview, Frank Starr described how he committed to making a difference.

He described his brother as the captain of his football team in Frisco City, Ala. As a four-year letter man in football, baseball and basketball. As a Navy search and rescue swimmer.

George Starr was given the police Medal of Honor because of his sacrifice that morning on the interstate.

``People ask me why I'm putting myself through this,' Starr told the reporter in 1993. ``I don't want George to be just another statistic, No. 379 that was killed by a drunk driver. He was somebody special to me. He deserves to be more than a number."

News researcher Jakon Hays contributed to this report.