Details

Collection Summary
Collection: FND002 - SHSND Foundation - North Dakota Peace Officer Memorial Program
Series: Tribute
Folder: DIG
Item: 03356
Title: Valence L. Pascal
Date:
Creator:
Inscription/Marks: 8/22/1967
Summary: A Benson County deputy sheriff was shot Thursday afternoon about 2 p.m. while making an arrest at Leeds. He died at Fargo the next morning. His assailant turned the murder weapon on himself and he died at Mercy Hospital in Devils Lake that afternoon. Dead is 26-year-old Valence Pascal, who had been a Benson County deputy sheriff since January 14, 1991. Also dead is David Stave, 57, a rural Leeds man whom Pascal had arrested at Earl's Bar in Leeds. Stave was wanted for failing to appear in court on a drunken driving charge. Leeds Chief of Police John Brossart knew the county had a warrant on Stave and when he saw Stave go into the bar, he notified the sheriff’s office. Brossart has been chief of police at Leeds for 19 years. Pascal entered the bar about 2 p.m. and arrested Stave. Bar owner Earl Stevens, who witnessed the incident, said Stave said before being put into the police car he was going to "make this bar famous" and repeatedly told the deputy, "Don't do this." Pascal put Stave in the back seat of the police car unhandcuffed and then got in himself. Stave pulled a.22 caliber homemade gun out of his pocket and shot Pascal in the right temple without warning. Stevens said he saw Pascal put Stave in the back seat and then saw Stave pull something from his pocket. "I didn't hear any shot, but the next thing I see, the deputy slumps over in his car seat," said Stevens. Brossart said he saw Pascal and Stave come out of the bar and saw the deputy put Stave in the back of the squad car. Brossart continued with what he was doing and shortly thereafter, someone waved him over and said the deputy had been shot. Brossart, who was unarmed, said he went to the car and asked Stave in the back seat where the gun was. Stave just shrugged. Brossart didn't see a gun, so he went to help Pascal. First, however, he put Pascal's pistol in his belt. When he looked up, Stave had his homemade gun pointed at Brossart through the cage which separates the front from the back seat in the police car. He grabbed Pascal's.45 out of his belt and pointed it at Stave. He told Stave twice to drop the gun. Then Stave said something to the effect that "The hole in the end of your gun is bigger than the hole in the end of mine." He smiled, Brossart said, and shot himself once in the head while in the back of the car. Pascal and Stave knew each other and the deputy apparently didn't consider Stave a threat because he didn't search him or handcuff him before placing him the back seat of the police car. Both Stave and Pascal were taken to Mercy Hospital in Devils Lake by volunteers from the Leeds Ambulance Service. Stave died there and Pascal was airlifted to St. Luke's in Fargo, where he died the next morning at 5:35. Pascal was single. His mother and stepfather, Darcy and Robert Pascal, live in Williston, as do his father and stepmother, Gary and Shirley Nelsen. Pascal was a deputy in Benson County only a month when his National Guard unit was activated to take part in Operation Desert Storm in the Persian Gulf. He returned to Minnewaukan April 4, 1991. Benson County Sheriff Ned J. Mitzell was assisted in the investigation by two officers of the ND Bureau of Criminal Investigation. The shootings were a shock to everyone who knew both men. Brossart said he knew Stave ever since he came to Leeds "…and I never would have expected it." Stave was apparently a more troubled man than anyone knew. He farmed and operated the York bar prior to closing it. He was also the last operator of the Harlow bar. He had gone through a divorce about five years ago and had to sell his farm. Stave's DUI was his first arrest, so he probably would have received a fine, a suspended jail sentence and evaluation, Mitzel said. Pascal was the 48th peace officer to be slain in the line of duty in North Dakota. The funeral for Valence Pascal, 26, was held Tuesday at 2 p.m. at St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Williston. Interment was in Williston. There will also be a memorial service at 2 p.m. Thursday at St. James Catholic Church in Minnewaukan. He died Friday, August 27, 1993 at St. Luke's Hospital in Fargo of injuries suffered August 26 at Leeds in a shooting incident in the line of duty as a Benson County sheriff's deputy. Valence Leewayne Pascal was born August 22, 1967 in Williston. He attended school in San Bernardino, CA., Williston, Dover, DE and Las Vegas, NV. He attended Williston High School for a year and graduated from high school in Altus, OK He entered the US Army in 1987 and served at Fort Sill, OK, Korea and Fort Carson, CO until his discharge. He was brought back to active duty in March of 1991 during the Persian Gulf War. He was a specialist in the ND National Guard, serving with Battery A, 1st Battalion of the 188th Air Defense Artillery in Grand Forks. He graduated from law enforcement training at UND-Lake Region in Devils Lake. He began working for the Benson County Sheriffs Department in January of 1991. Survivors include his mother and stepfather, Darcie and Robert Pascal of Williston; his father and stepmother, Gary and Shirley Nelsen of Williston; two sisters, Kerry Hill of Denver, CO and Tracy Nelsen of Williston; two brothers, Matthew Pascal and Travis Nelsen and his wife, Debbie of Williston; his girlfriend, Jackie Marquart of Bismarck; his paternal grandparents, Fred and Verna Nelsen of Williston; his maternal grandparents, Delmar and Loretta Brokaw of Williston; and his adoptive grandparents, Paul and Stella Pascal of Los Angeles, CA.
Red ID: FND_I_77325 Image ID: 509145 Image Notes: 10950 00002 03356

Collection: FND002 Digitized Images from Collection
Title: SHSND Foundation - North Dakota Peace Officer Memorial Program
Date:

Summary: The North Dakota Peace Officer Memorial Program honors fallen officers with highlights of their lives and careers.

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