On February 8, 2024, a routine duty ended in irreversible loss. Gregory Allan McCowan, a 43-year-old Deputy Sheriff with the Blount County Sheriffâs Office, died from gunfire during a traffic stop. For the people who knew his presence, and for the community whose safety he worked to protect, the date became more than an entry on a calendar. It became the day a life of service was taken away. McCowan had served⊠Read more
Tobin Bolter was 27 when his life was taken by gunfire during a traffic stop. On April 21, 2024, Ada County lost a deputy sheriff, a public servant whose seven years of duty had been carried in the simple, weighty number 6466. The facts are brief, but the loss is not. Behind the badge was a young man who had given seven years to the Ada County Sheriffâs Office in Idaho. That⊠Read more
William âAldenâ Elliott was killed doing work that demanded courage before anyone could know its cost. On April 29, 2024, the North Carolina Department of Adult Correction investigator was attempting to serve a warrant in east Charlotte when gunfire ended his life at the scene. He was 46 years old. Behind the rank of Investigator was a United States Marine Corps veteran, a husband, a father, and a public servant who had⊠Read more
Bradley J. Reckling was 30 years old when his life was taken. On June 22, 2024, the Oakland County Sheriffâs Office deputy was conducting surveillance related to a stolen vehicle in Madison Heights, Michigan, when gunfire ended a life that had already given approximately nine years to public service. The loss is difficult to measure because a badge records only the outline of a person. It cannot hold the years Bradley spent⊠Read more
At about 1:25 a.m. on July 30, 2024, Deputy Sheriff Rafael Wordlaw was sitting in a car while a friend pumped gas. Then an armed robbery began. Wordlaw was off duty, but the badge had shaped the kind of person who could not simply watch someone else face danger alone. He intervened, and the violence that followed took his life at 31. Wordlaw served the Cook County Sheriffâs Office - Department of⊠Read more
On August 9, 2024, Hunter Reedyâs life was taken by gunfire while he was assisting Marion Police Department officers with a traffic stop. He was 27 years old. In that stark fact is a grief that reaches far beyond a uniform: a young man who had chosen public service, a deputy whose future was still unfolding, and a community now forced to carry the silence left behind. Deputy Sheriff Reedy served with⊠Read more
On September 16, 2024, Russell County lost Deputy Sheriff Joshua C. Phipps. He was 38 years old, carried badge 1442, and had given three years to the Russell County Sheriffâs Office. The facts are stark: he was shot and killed while pursuing a fleeing suspect, leaving behind a department, a community, and everyone who knew the shape of his presence with an absence that cannot be repaired. Deputy Phipps was assisting the⊠Read more
On December 14, 2024, Sergeant Rick Finley went toward a report of a suspicious person in Selmer. He was 39 years old. By the end of that response, the McNairy County Sheriffâs Office had lost a member of its command, Tennessee had lost a public servant, and the people who knew his presence in their communities were left with a silence that cannot be filled by any badge number or official record.⊠Read more
On April 26, 2025, the Columbia County Sheriffâs 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⊠Read more
A life was taken from Maui County on August 15, 2025, when Police Officer Suzanne O. was shot and killed while answering a dangerous call. She was 37 years old. Despite lifesaving efforts by first responders, her gunshot wounds proved fatal at the scene. The loss is immediate in its cruelty and permanent in its reach. For five years, Suzanne O. served the Maui County Police Department, assigned to District 1 patrol,⊠Read more
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