MHP Trooper Palmer released to home

Montana Highway Patrol Trooper Wade Palmer has been released and returned home Wednesday.

A press release from the MHP stated that Palmer’s doctors at the University of Utah Hospital in Salt Lake City determined he is ready to transition to the next phase of care.

Palmer was escorted to his home by a motorcade after arriving in Missoula.

In the following days, Wade will begin outpatient therapy as his recovery continues. While the family is happy to share this news with the public, they also respectfully request privacy as they return and adjust to life back at home.

“Wade will be welcomed home to Montana as a hero,” Montana Attorney General Fox said acording to the release. “On behalf of the Highway Patrol, the Department of Justice, and the entire Montana law enforcement community, I want to again share my profound thanks to all who have supported Wade and his family in ways large and small, seen and unseen. Let us all keep the other victims of that fateful March night in our thoughts and prayers as they continue to receive medical care.”

“We are absolutely thrilled that Wade is coming home,” said MHP Colonel Tom Butler. “From the very beginning, he has received the best possible medical care and I know that it saved his life. Words cannot express my gratitude to all of the health care providers in Missoula and Salt Lake City who have cared for him during these past two months. Wade has a long road ahead, but I am glad that he will be traveling that road here in Montana with his family, friends, and fellow troopers at his side.”

On March 15, Palmer was shot in the neck, face and head, after locating a suspect involved in an earlier shooting that injured two and killed one in Missoula. He was transported to Saint Patrick Hospital in critical condition and eventually flown to Salt Lake City to receive Level I trauma care.