Rest in peace: Friends and family mourn Pennsylvania State Police Trooper David Kedra during a funeral Mass at Christ the King Church in Morrell Park on Monday. The Burholme native died on Sept. 30 after an accidental shooting at the Montgomery County Public Safety Training Complex.
Friends, colleagues and family described David Kedra as the prototypical Pennsylvania State Police trooper — an alpha personality, hard-working, goal-oriented, physically strong, often quiet on the outside, but charismatically confident once you got to know him.
“From the first day he put on that uniform and put on that hat, it was impossible to see him as anything else. My brother David Kedra was born to be a state trooper,” said Kevin Kedra as he eulogized his younger sibling during a funeral Mass at Christ the King Church in Morrell Park on Monday. “Most people will go through their entire lives, decades after decades, and they’ll never find their purpose. Dave never had that problem.
“When he put that uniform on, it was like Superman putting on his cape.”
Trooper Kedra, a 26-year-old Burholme native, died on Sept. 30 after an accidental shooting at the Montgomery County Public Safety Training Complex in Conshohocken left him with a fatal chest wound. Kedra, who grew up on the 7200 block of Claridge St., had been a member of the state police for just over two years and was assigned to Troop K in Skippack. He was engaged to be married and had recently relocated to East Coventry Township, Chester County, where he and his fiance, Suzanne Carrieri, had bought a home.
A gathering of thousands paid their final respects to Kedra on Monday as relatives and friends joined troopers from across Pennsylvania and states as far away as New Hampshire and Alaska, along with police officers from many municipal jurisdictions throughout the region and beyond.
Kedra, who graduated from Presentation BVM grade school, Roman Catholic High (Class of 2006) and Temple University, is also survived by his parents, George and Joan Kedra, brothers Kevin and Brian and their wives, along with sister Christine and her husband. During the homily, the Rev. Edward Brady assured the family that Kedra is at peace and wants them to reconcile with God, themselves and each other.
“What Dave wants you to know is that he is at peace with our most blessed trinity, and that the love and compassion he has for life is now his legacy to you — love and compassion. … We mourn with you and thank you for the gift of Dave’s life,” Brady said, before describing Kedra as “a trooper who protected the common good of our society which persists and endures in all of the women and men of the Pennsylvania State Police.”
Kedra’s death further stunned the state police, who are still mourning the Sept. 12 slaying of Cpl. Bryon Keith Dickson II outside of his barracks in the Pocono Mountains allegedly by a sniper identified by authorities as a military re-enactor and survivalist. A second trooper was wounded in the same shooting. Hundreds of troopers have spent more than three weeks hunting for the alleged killer in the mountainous woods of Pike and Monroe counties. He remains at large in a known but remote area, authorities have said.
Kedra volunteered to help hunt for the armed and dangerous suspect, according to Col. Frank Noonan, the state police commissioner.
“(The gunman) is an expert sniper. And he has booby traps in the woods that he’s lived in all his life. And yet it’s our job to go out there and find him and bring him to justice,” Noonan said during the eulogy. “I’ve often thought, since I’m the one putting people out there, how dangerous that is and how do you find people that are going to do it? Well, I have thousands of volunteers and David was one of them.”
Noonan and other troopers noted that Kedra answered the call of duty in both his professional and personal lives. Before his state police days, Kedra worked at a CVS. Despite that company’s policy that employees shouldn’t chase shoplifters from their stores, Kedra found ways around the rule to stop thievery on his watch. Another time, he spotted what appeared to be an intoxicated man stuffing candy into his mouth in one of the aisles. Kedra followed the suspected shoplifter outside, where the man collapsed.
Kedra summoned medical attention that saved the man’s life. Only then did he learn that the man had suffered a diabetic emergency.
After graduating from the state police academy in December 2012, Kedra’s professor at Temple routinely asked him to speak to criminal justice classes. The instructor asked him to talk about his good days on the job and his bad ones.
“And he would answer, ‘Well, every day I’m a Pennsylvania state trooper is a great day. And I have never had a bad day on the job,’” Noonan said. “I wish everybody felt that way. And I know everybody appreciates people who feel that way.”
Kedra’s colleagues in the Skippack barracks often heard similar sentiments.
“David routinely said at work, he’d raise his hands up and say, ‘I can’t believe they’re paying me to do this job.’ All the time, he was extremely grateful, honored and proud to be a Pennsylvania state trooper,” said Trooper Peter Hulayew, Kedra’s rookie trainer and partner.
According to Hulayew, Kedra treated it as a challenge to conduct more car stops and DUI investigations than others in his squad. And he made 29 criminal arrests in 2014 alone.
Away from the job, Kedra liked hot chicken wings, craft beer and cheese fries, but hated vegetables with a passion. He liked outdoor activities, including fishing, skiing and camping.
Trooper Jamison Keeler, Kedra’s police academy roommate, described his fallen colleague as a “team player” and the first to help you out in a tough situation. His friendship helped his classmates endure the rigorous six-month training regimen.
“Though we cursed those six months, I would run hills every day to have Dave back again,” Keeler said.
Kevin Kedra smiled when he reflected what his late brother’s spirit might be thinking of all the kind words and attention.
“Father Brady said that Dave wants us to see reconciliation. I think Dave wanted us to see that huge procession, all of these people in uniform out there saluting him and letting us know what a big shot he was,” Kevin Kedra said, eliciting laughter from the congregation. “We got the message, Dave.”
The younger Kedra was the 96th Pennsylvania trooper killed in the line of duty dating to 1906. Authorities have released few details about the shooting that took Kedra’s life. Noonan, in a printed statement, described it as “a training exercise” gone awry. It is being investigated jointly by the state police and the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office.
Last Thursday, 6ABC reported that the shooting occurred in a classroom where Kedra was attending a demonstration on how to break down and clean firearms. The station, which cited anonymous sources, identified the person with the gun as “an experienced state police firearms instructor,” but did not report whether the instructor was affiliated with the state police or an outside agency. The instructor’s identity has not been released.
The family of David Kedra has asked that memorial contributions be given to the Pennsylvania State Troopers Association’s Troopers Helping Troopers fund, 3625 Vartan Way, Harrisburg, PA 17110. ••
State troopers and police officers from throughout the country lined the streets of Morrell Park during the funeral procession.
Final respects: Pennsylvania State Police troopers carry the casket of the late David Kedra into Christ the King Church on Monday. MARIA POUCHNIKOVA / TIMES PHOTOS
