On April 26, 2025, the Columbia County Sheriff’s Office lost Deputy Sheriff Brandon Ray Sikes to gunfire. He was 31 years old. The facts are brief, but the loss they describe is not: a life with years still ahead, a public servant who had spent more than six years answering the demands of the badge, and a family, agency, and community forced to face a future without him. Sikes was killed during a traffic stop as deputies attempted to serve a temporary protective order. A call intended to help protect someone became the moment that took him away. There is a particular cruelty in that…

Read the full memorial →