SigMT

SIGNATURE MONTANA | 35 During his eight years of service with the Montana Highway Patrol (MHP), Trooper Lewis Johnson created a beautiful life with his wife, fellow trooper Kate Johnson, and their two-year-old son, Ryder, in the picturesque wilderness of northwest Montana near Eureka. e sprawling mountain terrain and rural community were a perfect fit for the 36-year-old avid outdoorsman and his young family. He and his wife were also studiously working towards sergeant promotions to advance their careers. When he hugged his wife and son goodbye and loaded up his patrol car to head out on his shi on February 16, 2023, Lewis and his family had no idea how different their lives were about to become. While trying to apprehend a fleeing felon later that aernoon, the career criminal slammed into him with a pickup truck, running him over before speeding away from the scene. Lewis was airlied to Logan Health in Kalispell with catastrophic injuries, including a punctured right lung, a lacerated liver, severe stomach bruising with separation of the stomach lining, a broken patella, a dislocated le shoulder with a small fracture, and lacerations to his face and head. All but two of his ribs were broken. Most devastating of all, the aack le the veteran trooper with a T12 vertebrae dislocation of the spinal cord – a life-altering injury that could result in needing to utilize a wheelchair for the rest of his life. He and his family have been at Craig Hospital in Colorado since February 28, steadfastly working on his recovery. "ere's a lot we just don't know yet," Lewis said of his prognosis. "But if I don't have movement below the point of injury by July, I'll be back at home in a wheelchair." Facing the Unknown When Kate was hit with the news that her husband had nearly been killed in the line of duty, the last thing she had time to focus on was her family's finances. "In the chaos of everything that happens those first weeks, you can't even check your mail or bank account," she said. It is a reality Robynn Schearer also faced aer her husband, 33-year- old Cascade County Deputy Joe Dunn, was killed in the line of duty on August 14, 2014, aer being struck by a fleeing suspect while he was deploying spike strips during a high-speed pursuit near Belt. In addition to having her husband of more than six years ripped away from her, the young stay-at-home mother-of-two found herself panicking over how to make ends meet and the prospect of needing to scramble to find work amid her grief. "Our children had just lost their dad, and now I was going to put them in daycare?" she recalled thinking. "ere are so many unknowns in those first days and weeks and even months." Monica Allmendinger, widow of Gallatin County Sheriff 's Deputy Jake Allmendinger and mother of his three young children, said she was too devastated over her husband's line-of-duty death to even think about her family's financial situation in those early days. Her 31-year-old high school sweetheart and husband of 10 years was killed on October 19, 2019, when he became pinned beneath his patrol vehicle while trying to rescue a stranded motorist on a treacherous, icy rural road in the Bridger Mountains. Cascade County Sheriff's Deputy Joe Dunn Montana Highway Patrol Trooper Lewis Johnson is working on his recovery with his wife, MHP Sergeant Kate Johnson, and their two-year-old son, Ryder, by his side. Photo courtesy of Jennifer Vernarsky

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