A Virginia state trooper was killed yesterday on Interstate 95 near the Springfield interchange.

Trooper Mark Cosslett, 40, was responding to a report of shots fired in the Newington area around 5:35 p.m., when a tow truck that had been traveling in the right lane came upon congestion and veered to the right, police said.

Cosslett was thrown from his motorcycle and pronounced dead at the scene, state police spokeswoman Lucy Caldwell said last night.

Charges are pending against the driver of the tow truck, a 30-year-old Dumfries man, Caldwell said. State police and the Fairfax County Police Accident Reconstruction Unit are investigating.

Cosslett was a member of the motorcycle unit, and had been with the state police for 16 years. He had a wife and two children, ages 2 and 3, and lived in Northern Virginia.

"It's a devastating loss for this department, and his family," said Caldwell. "He was the most populartrooper in Northern Virginia."

--Alex Russell, fredericksburg.com