Continuing the reflection

The legacy of Scotty Hylton didn't end that cold May day in 2003.

Second after Hylton was murdered, a Montgomery County Sheriff's deputy named Eric Sutphin pulled his squad car into same parking lot. Seeing the officer down on the ground and the murderer standing over him, Sutphin threw his car in park, stepped partially out, drew his Glock, and ordered the man to the ground. The orders were met by a fusillade of .40cal bullets. Sutphin dropped back into his car as the bullets flew past his head, fired off all 16 rounds in his pistol, and ducked below the dashboard and reloaded. When he peeked up, the suspect was running across the lot. Accompanied by a Christiansburg PD supervisor, Sutphin chased him behind a building, where, after pointing Hylton's stolen H&K at the officers, the offender was shot and killed.

Eric Sutphin was later honored both locally and at the state level for his incredible bravery that morning. His actions then were, I have been told, just a snapshot of a career filled with honor and intelligent policework.

That shooting, however, rattled him, and like a small portion of law officers involved in on-duty gunfights, he decided that enough was enough, and he left the Sheriff's Office, taking a job nearby assembling mobile homes.

It's done with, all in the past, he might have thought. Just as he might have felt the pull to leave the law enforcement profession, less than a year later he was drawn back into it and he was, once again, a MCSO deputy.

....to be continued......