A stretch of I-94 in Van Buren County could be named in honor of a Michigan State Police trooper who was killed in the line of duty.
State Representative Aric Nesbitt (R-Lawton) has sponsored a bill that would rename part of the freeway as the "Trooper Rick L. Johnson Highway". Johnson was killed in May 2000 when a passing car crashed into is police cruiser, pinning him between the two vehicles. The incident occurred during a routine traffic stop. Nesbitt says Johnson was a "dedicated member of the law enforcement community" who talked a suicidal man off of a highway overpass the day before his death.
I-94 in Kalamazoo County has been named in honor of Kalamazoo Public Safety Officer Eric Zapata who was shot and killed in the line of duty in 2011.
