Two Bulloch County Sheriff’s Office officers, Deputy Brian Myers and Deputy Richard Beckum – who hemmed in and ultimately shot a man who fled a hit-and-run accident and started shooting at people at a gas station – received the 2024 Public Servants of the Year Award during Thursday night’s banquet. So did the Statesboro Police Department’s Officer Nicholas Sparks-Hoskins, whose prompt first aid kept a fellow officer alive after that officer was shot.

To be clear, those were two separate, violent incidents that occurred earlier this year. This is not the first time the selection committee has chosen more than one person for the top honor, and retired GBI special agent-in-charge Charles Sikes, this year’s chair of the committee, said the members struggle to choose among deserving nominees.

“Everybody up here and out here is a hero, everybody who’s wearing the uniform and those who do not wear the uniform.” Sikes said, to the assembled public safety personnel and family members.

With the Georgia Bureau of Investigation he had served in an “assistance rendering agency,” but soon realized that “the guys and the girls wearing the uniform are the ones who  face the most danger  most of the time,” he said.

Presentation of the Outstanding Public Servants of the Year, also known as the Awards for Valor, capped the 10-agency Public Safety Awards ceremony put on by volunteers with donations from businesses and held again this year in the community building at the Kiwanis Ogeechee Fairgrounds.

Ten agencies or area branches of larger agencies – the Bulloch County Sheriff’s Office; Bulloch County Fire Department; Bulloch County Emergency Medical Service; GBI Region 5; Georgia Southern University Department of Public Safety; Georgia State Patrol Post 45; Statesboro Fire Department; Statesboro Police Department; Bulloch, Candler & Evans 911 Center; and Air Evac Life team 95 – were asked to make nominations for two awards.

All 10 agencies submitted nominations for the long-established Award for Valor.

Deputies Beckum and Myers

Sheriff Noel Brown nominated Deputies Myers and Beckum for the award largely for their actions in response to a deadly June 18 incident. In the middle of the day, the Sheriff’s Office first received a call about a hit-and-run accident on U.S. Highway 80 near Burkhalter Road.

“In an unforeseen turn of events, as we were responding to the accident call, we began receiving reports that a car matching the hit-and-run vehicle was involved in several shots fired events,” Brown stated in his nomination letter.

After the driver of the suspect vehicle turned into the Gas Pro truck stop on U.S. Highway 301 South, he “without any provocation, pointed a handgun at a random customer attempting to buy fuel,” Brown stated. When that customer got into his vehicle to escape, the armed man fired shots at the fleeing vehicle, and a store employee who walked out to see what was happening quickly fled back into the store, according to the sheriff’s account.

Racing to towards the scene in separate patrol vehicles, Myers and Beckum worked together to box the armed suspect in, Beckum driving up to the front of his vehicle while Myers approached from the rear. The armed man “then opened fire on Myers, narrowly missing him but striking the store with at least two rounds,” the sheriff stated. He noted that employees and customers were in the store a the time.

Myers and Beckum both shot at the suspect, and after he was down, “law enforcement officers did the best they could to render aid,” Brown stated, but the man later died from his wounds.

Brown praised Beckum and Myers for giving up free time to practice regularly on the shooting range and for wanting, immediately after the incident, to check on the wellbeing of the dispatcher who had to hear it all.

“I am certain that the quick action of these two deputies contained the situation and prevented innocent citizens from being harmed,” Brown stated. “Had they not intervened so quickly, the shooter could have likely entered the store and possibly caused a mass shooting incident.”

Officer Sparks-Hoskins

Statesboro Police Chief Charles “Mike” Broadhead nominated Officer Nicholas Sparks-Hoskins for a different role in different sort of officer-involved shooting that occurred April 18.

That was the day when officers were dispatched to the Copper Beech apartment complex on a report of a car prowler and Officer Joey DeLoach confronted a suspect entering an automobile.

“The suspect immediately began shooting at Officer DeLoach, who returned fire, striking the suspect, who then fled into the darkness,” Broadhead stated in his nomination note. “Officer DeLoach was badly wounded, with a bullet severing his femoral artery.”

SPD officers carry tourniquet kits, and DeLoach at first tried to put one on himself, but was losing blood and unable to complete the task. Sparks-Hoskins, quickly on the scene, properly applied the tourniquet and helped load DeLoach into the patrol car to get him to the emergency room. Finding the tourniquet properly secured, the ER doctor left it in place for a helicopter to transport DeLoach to a Savannah hospital, according to the police chief’s account.

“The trauma surgeon was able to repair the damaged artery, and stated that without the life-saving tourniquet, there was no possibility that Officer DeLoach would have survived,” Broadhead noted.

DeLoach, who recovered and has since returned to duty, was not included in Thursday’s awards. But DeLoach had received the SPD’s Medal of Honor and Purple Heart and Sparks-Hoskins the city’s Lifesaving Award in a ceremony before Statesboro’s mayor and council in May.

Meritorious Service

From all 10 participating agencies, only three nominees were identified for the Meritorious Service Award, which was added the Bulloch County Public Safety Awards program a few years ago. It has been used variously as a lifetime achievement award for long-serving personnel nearing retirement, or to honor outstanding service by individuals in administrative or clerical roles, or to salute front-line personnel for community service  or lifesaving work  outside of ordinary duties.

All three nominees were chosen for Meritorious Service Awards.

Georgia State Patrol Post 45’s Meritorious Service winner is Master Trooper Chris Cuddington, who began his law enforcement career in 1992, joined the State Patrol in 2001 and is now considered one of the longest-serving Georgia SWAT team members, active  around the state.

One of only two master troopers in southeastern Georgia, “Chris has a command presence and is one of the most respected Troopers among his peers,” states the nominating narrative, which carried the names of the post commander and two assistant commanders.

The Bulloch County Sheriff’s Office’s Meritorious Service winner is Capt. Rick Rountree, who served in the Air Force before beginning his career as a civilian law enforcement officer in 1992. He previously served with the former Tri-Circuit Drug Task Force and joined the BCSO as an investigator in 1997. During Brown’s administration, Rountree has served as professional standards captain. Presenting the award, the Brown said he has reluctantly received Rountree’s resignation letter for his retirement to take effect Dec. 20.

The Statesboro Police Department’s Meritorious Service winner, Terri Frost, has served with the department for more than 40 years. She started as a dispatcher and later became the Detective Division’s administrative assistant.

“She has a wealth of knowledge about the people in Statesboro and Bulloch County and is a great asset to our department,” Broadhead wrote.

A future version of this story will list all of the Award for Valor nominees.

A 48-year tradition

Bird Hodges started the tradition of an annual appreciation event for public safety personnel at his pond house in 1976 when there were about 10 full-time law enforcement and firefighting personnel in the county, he says. Now, there are hundreds of public safety personnel.

Forty-eight years later, Hodges, a now retired funeral home owner who previously also served as Bulloch County coroner and county commissioner, remains coordinator of the Public Servant of the Year awards and banquet. He works with Laura Moore, John Allen Smith and Ricky Helton as the organizing committee.

The selection committee, now consisting of Sikes, county commissioner and retired firefighter Jappy Stringer and retired police chief Stan York, decides who will receive the top awards from the nominees honored by the agencies.