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Family of slain KHP trooper pleads to keep killer in prison

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May 22, 2012|By Brian Heap | KWCH 12 Eyewitness News

(WICHITA, Kan.) — The family of a slain Kansas State Trooper urged a prison review board to keep his killer behind bars and delay the next parole hearing for as long as the law will allow.

The wife and children of Ferdinand "Bud" Pribbenow spoke during a public hearing in Wichita Tuesday, more than 30 years after the officer was gunned down in the line of duty.

July 11, 1981, Pribbenow stopped a car for traveling 98 mph on the Kansas Turnpike, north of the El Dorado interchange.  As Pribbenow approached, the driver jumped out of the car and opened fire, hitting Pribbenow in the chest and neck.

The shooter, later identified as George Rainey, left the scene.  His car was spotted at the Kellogg tollgate in Wichita.  After a brief chase, Rainey plowed his car into the back of a van and got into a shoot-out with officers.  Rainey was shot several times and taken into custody.

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"He decided my grandchildren would never know their grandfather," Pribbenow's widow, told two members of the prison review panel.

Dorothy Pribbenow was accompanied by three of her daughters.  All of them urged the panel not to allow Rainey, 53, to put another family through what they've been through. 

Rainey is now up for parole for the 5th time since 1996, according to state prison officials.

Tracy Pribbenow said she relives her father's murder all over again every 3-5 years when Rainey comes up for parole.  She asked that his next hearing be delayed for the maximum ten years.

The board will make its decision at a later date.

Trooper Pribbenow was shot in cold blood as he made a normal traffic stop on the turnpike in 1981. His killer is up for parole and the family says 'no.'
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