Wounded state trooper is improving: Tfc. Eric Workman, shot while trying to serve arrest warrant, still in critical condition but sits up in bed.

Byline: Laura Barnhardt and Nick Shields

Dec. 14--Tfc. Eric D. Workman sat up in his hospital bed yesterday. He nodded his head. And, his father said, he squeezed the hands of friends and relatives who have been gathering at Maryland Shock Trauma Center since Workman was shot while trying to arrest a robbery suspect early Tuesday. Workman remained in critical condition yesterday, but his health status was described as stable, and he was showing signs of improvement. "He's not out of the woods by any means," Gary D. "Buzz" Workman, the trooper's father, said at an afternoon media briefing outside the hospital. But "he looks good. His color is good. They say he's well ahead of what they expected." The elder Workman, a retired U.S. Secret Service officer from West Virginia, said he was hopeful that his son would eventually return home with him to finish his recovery, as the trooper did after he was hit by a car on the Capital Beltway while on duty eight years ago. "I have a fishing pond," the father said with a smile. During the trooper's last convalescence, his father said, he managed to drive out to the pond wearing all of his…