PageO Greenwood Commonwealth / Wednesday, November 1, 2017 cfopq=obpmlkabop =======================================================================================================================================================================
THANK YOU, FIRST RESPONDERS Greenwood Leflore Hospital salutes all first responders. From keeping our community safe to helping us save lives, you truly make our community a better place. Thank you for making a difference.
A Lifetime of Care
1401 River Road • Greenwood, MS • www.glh.org
Deadly day
PageP Greenwood Commonwealth / Wednesday, November 1, 2017 cfopq=obpmlkabop =======================================================================================================================================================================
Military plane crash
First responders faced unprecedented crisis
pãçâÉ=~åÇ=Ñä~ãÉ=éçìê=Ñêçã=~=j~êáåÉ=`JNPM=íÜ~í=Åê~ëÜÉÇ=áå=iÉÑäçêÉ=`çìåíó=çå=gìäó=NMK=^ää=NS=ëÉêîáÅÉ=ãÉãÄÉêë=~Äç~êÇ=ïÉêÉ=âáääÉÇK
M
ost folks in Greenwood or Itta Bena on the afternoon of July 10 were inside trying to escape the blistering mid-summer heat. With temperatures in the mid-90s, the day was punctuated by a cloudless blue sky and, at around 4 p.m., by a plane that fell from the sky in the westernmost part of Leflore County. “I was coming back from a doctor’s appointment in Jackson when I was notified, and I went straight to the scene,” Leflore County Undersheriff Ken Spencer said. As he reached Greenwood and began heading west on U.S. 82, he noticed two fire units racing behind him. At the Sheriff’s Spencer Department, Sheriff Ricky Banks was the first to hear from Memphis Air Traffic Control that a plane had crashed in the western part of the county, and he began relaying information to the county fire coordinator, though it was unclear what exactly had happened. Like most first responders in Leflore County, Banks initially thought Banks he was dealing with the crash of a crop duster, which is not an unusual event in this area. Fire Coordinator Bobby Norwood got the call from the sheriff and immediately headed toward the scene from his office in Itta Bena. Itta Bena firefighters had already arrived when Norwood caught up
with his men. “As I was getting close, I saw lots of black smoke coming from the south side of the highway and some smoke from the north side as well,” he said. Norwood figured these were two separate incidents, and the one off County Road 287, to the south, demanded the most immediate attention with its towering column of thick, black smoke. When he arrived at Mount Pleasant Missionary Baptist Norwood Church, Norwood assessed the scene and called the Greenwood Fire Department for assistance. Later, Norwood talked to Donald and Gary Fulgham, who told him they’d seen the plane flying across the highway in flames. “They said it wasn’t no crop duster,” Norwood said. “They said it was a big plane with four engines on it.” Two hours later, while working to suppress the fire, Norwood received word that the plane was a U.S. military C-130 transport vehicle. In Greenwood, Fire Chief Marcus Banks got the call from Norwood. “I do double duty in the summer managing the city swimming pool,” Banks said. “I was at the pool when I noticed a column of smoke to the west.” Banks thought it might have been a fire set by a farmer out in the county, but then he got the call from Norwood and knew he was dealing with a plane, possibly a crop duster. He called Station 4, which
houses the department’s aircraft crash truck — a vehicle that sprays foam to put out hydrocarbon fuel fires — and headed with a crew to the south side scene. That was at 4:23 p.m. “When I got past WalMart, the smoke was more visible,” Banks said. “I could see that there was smoke on both sides of the highway but most of it on the south side.” Banks Banks thought to himself that the amount of smoke seemed too much for a crop duster — that a large amount of fuel must be burning to make that much smoke — when, just past Mississippi Valley State University, he got the call that it was a C130. A military veteran of 12 years, he had spent plenty of time on C-130s. His heart missed a beat at the news. “I wondered what it was carrying. Was it full of troops or cargo?” he said. “I was on the scene within about three minutes.” A crowd of onlookers had driven to the site on the narrow gravel road abutting the church, crowding it so that the crash truck couldn’t fit through. Banks asked for more deputies to come and clear the road. In short order, the scene was secured, and he was staging at a large catfish pond behind the church where county firefighters had set up on the levee. “I saw a huge crater out in the field, burning,” he said. Norwood and his men had already been working the fire, and they had climbed around on the outer perimeter of the
gnarled remains of the plane, trying to identify what was there. Norwood recalled that he saw huge amounts of jet fuel pooled on the ground, signaling an urgent need for a steady water supply to continue cooling off the fire. A few little pops and explosions didn’t immediately set off alarms for him or his men. Those sounds were common enough, even in house fires when aerosol cans or other flammables ignite. There was no manifest available from the military at that point, and no one knew what the plane was carrying. Later, Norwood would learn that the plane carried “an enormous amount” of undetonated 40 mm rounds, along with other weapons and explosives, but at the moment he was focused on cooling off the fire. When Banks and the crash truck arrived, they drove down a makeshift road, mowed through the soybean field by a farmer with his tractor to enable passage to the outer perimeter of the fire. Meanwhile, Norwood and his men determined that to keep water flowing, they would pump water from the pond through a hose stretched across the field to the site. “Those young men, those volunteers, hefted up a heavy 2.5-inch hose and walked it out to the fire, to keep the supply steady,” he said. “They carried it about 1,200 feet.” County and city firefighters worked in tandem, cooling off the fire and smothering it with foam, until larger explosions commenced. Banks saw what he thought were tracer bullets and recognized the sound of ammunition detonating. The crews pulled back and waited for the
pqlov=_v=h^qeovk=b^pq_rok=n melqlp=_v=qeb=^ppl`f^qba=mobpp=^ka=h^qeovk=b^pq_rok
PageQ Greenwood Commonwealth / Wednesday, November 1, 2017 cfopq=obpmlkabop =======================================================================================================================================================================
PageR Greenwood Commonwealth / Wednesday, November 1, 2017 cfopq=obpmlkabop =======================================================================================================================================================================
activity to quiet down before continuing the firefight, which lasted well past dark and into the night. Meantime, more information was coming in and a picture was starting to develop of who was on board the fallen plane. Leflore County Sgt. Fred Randle, who directs the county’s emergency management response, was on duty at the sheriff’s office when the fire was first reported and sent a deputy who was out in Itta Bena, Matthew Brown, to the south side scene. Brown described what he found Randle there, and Randle immediately contacted dispatch, sending Itta Bena firefighters out. He contacted Norwood and talked to witnesses. He stayed in contact with the sheriff, who continued to receive information from the military and air traffic control. “At first we thought there were four men on board, then eight, nine, 12, and finally we knew there were 16 men on the plane.” Randle contacted Denny Evans, Mississippi Emergency Management Agency coordinator, and Evans began calling agencies across the state. “I got a call saying a farmer had found a body over on the north side of the highway,” Randle said. In full crisis management mode by then, he began coordinating the day-today operations of what would turn out to be several weeks of search efforts by state agencies, federal agencies, the military and local people across a debris field several miles wide, traversing flat lands, fertile soybean fields and shady forests out in the county. Randle set up an operations center at the County Business and Manufacturing Development Center, better known as “the incubator,” just across from Mississippi Valley State University. There, briefings were held; volunteers delivered thousands of meals, snacks and drinks for parched search crews; and visiting military troops would rest and replenish, learning a little about Mississippi in the midst of their critical duties. It would turn out to be an operation and a disaster that changed a large number of people’s lives forever. v v v
“A crop duster pilot had flown over the north field and advised that there were bodies and debris everywhere,” Randle
JJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJ
“I looked up one day at the incubator, and there was a troop of tiny Cub Scouts lugging cases of water. One day an elderly woman came carrying big cases of water. She had the colonel crying. She had me crying. ’’ Sheriff Ricky Banks JJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJ
said. “I called Mississippi Highway Patrol for a helicopter.” While firefighters continued to battle the volatile remains of the plane on the south side of the highway, a search mission began in earnest on the north side site. The sun was still high, and the heat was staggering. A fire truck from neighboring Sunflower County had been diverted from the south side fire to the north side of the highway by Norwood. “We’d started to get information that there were bodies and what turned out to be the cockpit of the plane over there.” Spencer said that when he arrived at the north scene, there were already a “ton of people” present. “Everybody and his brother responded,” he said. Deputies from the sheriff’s department, Mississippi Highway Patrol, fire personnel, MedStat units, Sunflower County Sheriff’s Department personnel and Sunflower volunteer search and rescue individuals were all on hand. “At that point in time, when everybody first got there, we were in a different mode,” he said. “We were in a rescue type mode, still hopeful that there might be survivors.” Those hopes were quashed quickly. Spencer went up in a Highway Patrol helicopter to scan the area from the air, and what he saw was sobering. He could see indentations in the ground and spots where the soybeans in the field, about 4 feet high, had been flattened. It turned out that in many of those spots, someone had fallen and perished. Marking of objects and human remains began; bodies were marked with white flags, plane debris with red flags. “When we first started locating the first casualties, Debra Sanders and Will Gnemi from the coroner’s office were called to the scene,” Spencer said. Sanders and Gnemi were responsible for declaring the deaths of each individual from the plane and for the removal of their remains once military investigators had done their work and approved their
removal, a delicate and painstaking process. Once the fires in the cockpit of the plane on the north side of the highway and the fuselage on the south side had been extinguished, Norwood and his crew brought out the Jaws of Life to carefully extract additional bodies, two in each location. The last body, the 16th, was found on Thursday morning of the fourth day, July 13, in the woods near the north scene. “We all cried that morning,” Spencer said. “They said they weren’t leaving until that last man was found.” The other 15 bodies, all U.S. Marines except for one Navy sailor had been transported to Jackson in a procession of hearses early in the day, and a Huey helicopter assisting in the mission transported the last Marine to Jackson to join his comrades before they were all sent to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware and eventually returned to their families. From that moment on, Leflore County first responders became support personnel, assisting the Marines command in their search for pieces of the plane and its contents, to be examined and reassembled in their ongoing investigation into the crash that killed 16 of their own, brothers in arms. v v v
Spencer said he thinks about the crash every day. He is changed forever by what he saw. Sheriff Banks said the crash reinforced his fear of flying, and he won’t be boarding a plane again if he can help it. They agreed that beyond the terrible tragedy and loss of life, what affected them most was seeing all those people coming together for one cause — to help in any way they could. “I looked up one day at the incubator, and there was a troop of tiny Cub Scouts lugging in cases of water,” Banks said. “One day an elderly woman came in carrying big cases of water. She had the
colonel crying. She had me crying.” They remembered finding an engine assembly out in the woods and marveling at the size of it. They remembered the strange sight of a Glock pistol, buried in soft dirt, pointing barrel up, a propeller buried 4 feet down in the ground. They remembered the faces of those young Marines, marveling at the hospitality extended to them by Mississippians. Randle said there had never been an event like the Marine C-130 crash in Leflore County and likely wouldn’t be again. “The outpouring of support was spectacular,” he said. “I never saw Mississippi take a stand together like that.” Randle said it was a rough ride with little sleep and terrible images of death and destruction. He said his unique challenge was bringing together all the various entities in a united effort. “Once we got all the egos out of the way, and everybody understood it was one mission — respond, recover, get things back to normal — it went really well,” he said. Getting things back to normal included getting farmers back in the field to water and grow their crop and sustain their livelihood, a reminder that life goes on. Fire Chief Banks agreed that the command worked well and that the impact of the crash on him and his men was still palpable. “Most of my emotions came from a veteran’s standpoint,” he said. “I thought about how quickly things can change, how quickly your life can end. I wondered what was going through the minds of those men at that last moment before the plane went down.” Norwood said he’d worked a lot of plane crashes and had put out many fires, but he had never dealt with a situation that posed a hazard like this one with the amount of jet fuel on the ground and the explosives on board. “I think we all worked well together,” he said. He said the emotional impact for him came from thinking about those men who perished and the similarities among them and his crew of volunteer firefighters — many of them young men with families, out doing their duty, putting themselves in harm’s way. In the end, he said, it was all about those 16 men on board. “Sixteen died together, and they all left Mississippi together,” he said. “It makes you appreciate the life you have. It makes you open up your eyes and see what all you’ve been blessed with.” n
cä~Öë=Ü~îÉ=ÄÉÉå=éä~ÅÉÇ=~äçåÖ=íÜÉ=ëáÇÉ=çÑ=rKpK=UO=åÉ~ê=íÜÉ=åçêíÜ=Åê~ëÜ=ëáíÉ=áå=êÉãÉãÄê~åÅÉ=çÑ=íÜÉ=NS=ïÜç=ÇáÉÇ=~ë=~=êÉëìäí=çÑ=íÜÉ=Åê~ëÜK
PageS Greenwood Commonwealth / Wednesday, November 1, 2017 cfopq=obpmlkabop =======================================================================================================================================================================
Community service
PageT Greenwood Commonwealth / Wednesday, November 1, 2017 cfopq=obpmlkabop =======================================================================================================================================================================
Schlater Volunteer Fire Department
Volunteer fire chief says job is rewarding
jáÅÜ~Éä=t~äâÉê=áë=íÜÉ=ÅÜáÉÑ=çÑ=íÜÉ=pÅÜä~íÉê=sçäìåíÉÉê=cáêÉ=aÉé~êíãÉåíK=eÉ=Ü~ë=äÉÇ=íÜÉ=NOJéÉêëçå=ÇÉé~êíãÉåí=ëáåÅÉ=OMMOK
M
ichael Walker, chief of the Schlater Volunteer Fire Department, is often asked why he chose to do a job that can be hazardous and brings no compensation. The answer is simple: He wants to contribute to his community. “I’ve always enjoyed it,” he said. “It’s a dangerous job, but it’s a rewarding job to know that you’re able to help.” Walker, 39, was born and raised in Schlater. A farmer, he graduated from Mississippi State University in 2001 with a degree in agribusiness and a minor in economics. Walker said he often rode on fire trucks as a child — with permission, of course — and helped out later when needed. It was just part of growing up in a small community. So volunteer firefighting seemed to be a natural fit. After completing his 40 hours of classwork for volunteer firefighting, he went to the state fire academy for the handson skills training and earned his certification in 1998. He added first responder certification in 1999. He went on to work full time for MedStat for five years after college and then stayed on part time until the business was sold. He has been chief of the 12-person Schlater department since
JJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJ
“I’ve always enjoyed it. It’s a dangerous job, but it’s a rewarding job to know that you’re able to help. ’’ Michael Walker
JJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJ
2002. The level of activity varies, he said: “Some months, we don’t have a call, and some months, we may have three or four calls.” Walker has worked three crop-duster crashes in Minter City and three train wrecks, as well as a fire at Wildwood Gin in Money and a collision between a train and a fuel truck in Glendora. He was on vacation this July when a U.S. Marine Corps plane crashed in a soybean field on the western edge of Leflore County, killing 16 people. He has seen some gruesome sights at these scenes, but his focus is on getting the job done. “Really, at the moment, you’ve got so much that has to be done, your mind doesn’t have time to think about what you’re looking at,” he said. “You’ve got a job at hand, a task at hand that’s got to be done and done quickly and done right.
And once it’s over, then you look back and you say, ‘Wow. What did we just do? What happened there?’ You just can’t let it get to you. You have to do it and put it behind you and be ready for the next day or the next hour.” The Schlater department can assist its counterparts in Itta Bena, Money and Minter City, and vice versa. “Everybody comes to back up each other if we need it,” he said. “So we pretty well cover everything north of Highway 82, for the most part, with the exception of way on the east side of Greenwood. ... Anything major, we pretty well are involved.” Of course, volunteer firefighters have to be prepared to respond any time of the day on any day of the week — but Walker is already accustomed to working long hours as a farmer. And every day is different for him anyway. “Farming’s not an easy job; it’s got its
pqlov=_v=a^sfa=jlkolb
good and bad days. Same thing with fire service,” he said. “You go to one call, and it’s strenuous and a lot of work to do and hot, and the next call there’s not much to do but just kind of sit around and watch it burn.” Any call can require split-second decision making based on unpredictable circumstances. “You can study a book and know exactly what you need to do, and when you get there, something’s totally different,” Walker said. “It may be way more dangerous than what you think, and it may be way easier than what you’re expecting when you get there. You never know.” Also, because of work schedules, he is one of only two people in his department who are available during the day. So it can be difficult to find help then, and he might be the only one can show up. “Sometimes that can get tricky, when you’re the only one there and you’re trying to operate a truck and be on the end of the hose and do all the stuff and stay safe doing it,” he said. That’s the number-one thing.” On occasion, he’ll ask bystanders for help with non-firefighting tasks such as pulling hoses. Walker said he has a good crew in his
PageU Greenwood Commonwealth / Wednesday, November 1, 2017 cfopq=obpmlkabop =======================================================================================================================================================================
qÜÉ=pÅÜä~íÉê=sçäìåíÉÉê=cáêÉ=aÉé~êíãÉåí=áåÅäìÇÉëI=Ñêçã=äÉÑíI=jáÅÜ~Éä=t~äâÉêI=g~ëçå=`çäèìÉííI=oçååáÉ=`çìåíëI=e~åâ p~åÇÉêëI=qÉêêó=`çääáåëI=táääá~ã=_êçïåI=gçÜå=eçÇÖÉëI=j~ííÜÉï=_êçïåI=qóäÉê=`~ååçåI=mÜáääáé=oÜçÇÉë=~åÇ=içóÇ=eçÇÖÉëK kçí=éáÅíìêÉÇ=áë=a~îáÇ=gÉååáåÖëK= department, with a mix of older and younger people and little turnover. “That’s not the same all over the county, but we have a pretty good group that has been there a while,” he said. He said he wishes the Schlater department had more people, but recruiting can be difficult. Often when he asks someone about the possibility of joining up, “the first question is, ‘Well, what do I get out of it?’” he said. “I mean, how do you answer that? It’s volunteer. You get the satisfaction of helping your community. ‘Well, why would I want to do that?’
You’ve got to tell me why you don’t want to do that. I mean, I want to do that. That’s just my nature.” Walker said it can be hard to balance his work at the fire department with farming and family life. He and his wife, Katie, have a 10-year-old daughter, Nora, and a 7year-old son, Nolan. As chief, he has to keep up with where everyone in the department is, make sure they’re safe and make sure they have the resources they need. The department did get a new truck in 2015, which made a big difference. The firefighters generally have the necessary
equipment, although there’s always something that needs to be updated, Walker said. He understands that the county must balance the needs of all the departments when deciding when to upgrade. “Everything costs more, but you’ve still got to have the equipment to do the job and to do it safely,” he said. The volunteer firefighters are not providing medical help now; the practice was stopped for a while for legal reasons. But Walker said they’re preparing to offer the service again and will start training this month. Those already trained as
first responders will take a 12-hour refresher class, and those not certified will have to go through 40 hours. The firefighters also periodically have classes on special topics such as extrication or responding to incidents at grain bins. Sometimes these are merely refresher classes; other times there’s something new to learn. But Walker said he continues to learn something every day on the job already. “It’s all kinds of stuff that we have to know how to do. You never know what you’re going to run into,” he said. n
Dynamic duo
PageV Greenwood Commonwealth / Wednesday, November 1, 2017 cfopq=obpmlkabop =======================================================================================================================================================================
Leflore County Sheriff’s Department K-9s
Sheriff’s Department boasts 2 top dogs
iÉÑíW=cêÉÇ=o~åÇäÉÛë=hJVI=bäò~I=~=QJóÉ~êJçäÇ=dÉêã~å=ëÜÉéÜÉêÇI=áë=çåÉ=çÑ=íÜÉ=ÑÉï=ÄçãÄJëåáÑÑáåÖ=ÇçÖë=áå=íÜÉ=åçêíÜÉêå=Ü~äÑ=çÑ=íÜÉ=ëí~íÉK=bäò~=áë=~äëç=~=ÅÉêíáÑáÉÇ=é~íêçä=ÇçÖ=~åÇ=íê~ÅâÉêK oáÖÜíW=_áää=pí~íÉåÛë=hJV=jçêÖ~åI=~=RJóÉ~êJçäÇ=_ÉäÖá~å=j~äáåçáëI=áë=ÅÉêíáÑáÉÇ=áå=å~êÅçíáÅë=ÇÉíÉÅíáçå=~åÇ=Å~å=ëåáÑÑ=çìí=ã~åó=ÇáÑÑÉêÉåí=î~êáÉíáÉë=çÑ=ÇêìÖëK=jçêÖ~å=áë=~äëç=ÅÉêíáÑáÉÇ=~ë=~ é~íêçä=ÇçÖ=~åÇ=íê~ÅâÉêK
L
eflore County Sheriff’s Department K-9 handlers Bill Staten and Fred Randle say the department has two of the best dogs in the state. “As far as I’m concerned, we’ve got two of the best dogs around,” said Staten, who is an investigator for the department. “We’re just fortunate to have two very, very good K-9s for the county.” Staten is the handler of K-9 Morgan, and Randle is the handler of K-9 Elza. “They are a very good asset to the Sheriff’s Department,” said Randle, a patrol shift sergeant. “These dogs can work miracles.” K-9 Morgan is a 5½-year-old male Belgian Malinois and is “just hitting his prime,” said Staten. Morgan is Staten’s third dog in his career. He has been Morgan’s handler for about three years, and the K-9 has been a member of the Sheriff’s Department for about four years. Morgan was assigned to Staten after his original handler left the department. Morgan, a certified patrol dog, specializes in narcotics detection and is trained to sniff out a variety of drugs, including heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine, marijuana and PCP. Staten said his K-9 has one of the best noses for drugs he’s ever seen.
JJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJ “As far as I’m concerned, we’ve got two of the best dogs around. We’re just fortunate to have two very, very good K-9s for the county. ’’ Bill Staten
JJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJ
“He’s just a wonderful partner,” said Staten. “He doesn’t know how to lie. Once you tell him to go on the alert for drugs, either it’s there or it’s not. When he hits a scent, he stays on the scent.” Morgan is also trained and certified in tracking and apprehension. Belgian Malinois are known for their speed, intelligence, agility and tenacity, all qualities that make them excellent law enforcement or military dogs. “Morgan enjoys his work,” said Staten. “He’s got tremendous drive, and my dog has a great attitude about his work ethic.” K-9 Elza is a 4-year-old female German shepherd. She is also certified as a patrol dog, but her primary focus is bomb detection and tracking. Elza is the only bomb detection dog in the Delta area and one of only a little over 20
bomb-sniffing dogs in the state. “So we’ve been to every major bomb threat that’s been called from Kosciusko on down,” said Randle. Elza is Randle’s second dog to handle for the Sheriff’s Department and is a top-notch tracker. “I’d put her up against any tracking dog in the state of Mississippi. She’s just that good,” said Randle. “She’s a very good dog, and I consider her as another deputy.” Both dogs are highly trained and can understand and follow a multitude of commands. K-9 dogs are trained from the time they are about 8 to 10 weeks old. Morgan went to a training academy in Little Rock, Arkansas, and Elza attended school at Highland Canine Training in North Carolina.
pqlov=^ka=melqlp=_v=orqefb=ol_fplk
“When you acquire a dog, the typical routine is, depending on what discipline your dog is in, you go and stay three to four weeks at the facility with the dog,” said Staten. This gives the handler and the K-9 time to acclimate to each other. Usually the handler and K-9 will spend about a week on tracking, a week on bite work and apprehension and a week on the dog’s focus area, such as narcotics detection or bomb sniffing. “The dog is in continuous training,” said Staten. “When we acquire our K-9s, we bond with them for a period of time so they get acclimated to our voice and our commands. They develop that trust, and we continue the training for their entire length as service dogs.” Staten and Randle have their dogs recertified each year. The handlers each have different training routines, but Morgan and Elza are worked daily with either agility, commands, tracking or their specialties. “I train Morgan daily,” said Staten. “He works out drug detection, and we do bite work on a daily basis. We constantly train with tracking. We lay out trails for the dogs to work, and we’ll do that in different types of weather. So it’s a constant process to keep them sharp.”
PageNM Greenwood Commonwealth / Wednesday, November 1, 2017 cfopq=obpmlkabop =======================================================================================================================================================================
Randle said training is very important for the K9 officers. “It keeps them proficient on their skills,” he said. “If you don’t train, you’ll see mistakes or they’ll make false hits. But if you train and you know your dog, you’ll know your dog is on the right track. “It’s a work in progress every day. I keep her in different environments. We go on long tracking trails. The longest trail we’ve been on is seven miles. She doesn’t get tired. I get tired before she gets tired.” Both dogs are skilled at bite work, or apprehension. They know when to apprehend a perpetrator and do not let go until they hear the command to do so from their handlers. Staten and Randle, however, view apprehension as a last resort. “For me to send my dog to bite, it’s got to be life or death,” said Randle. “It means something’s gone bad.” Staten said, “There are very unique circumstances where we release the dog to apprehend someone who is fleeing from us, but it has to be a person with a pretty serious offense or a danger to civilians, citizens of the county or to us for us to release a dog like that.” Staten and Randle both said that just the dogs’ presence at a scene has a way of de-escalating tense situations. “Just putting them on the leash and letting them run. The dogs aren’t paying them any attention, but they are going to disperse,” said Randle. Staten also noted the calming effect his dog can have on people during intense encounters. “People’s tempers get out of hand occasionally, and the dog’s presence is a way to reduce hostility,” he said. “I don’t have to take him out of the kennel. I just open the trunk up, and people know, ‘We better behave.’ It kind of distracts them.” Staten and Randle also deploy with their K-9s upon special request from federal authorities, the U.S. Marshals Service or area law enforcement agencies. “They may request us to come with the dogs to search a house, or, in the case of the Marshals Service, a dangerous fugitive,” said Staten. “There’s only a few K-9 units in the northern half of the state, so we’re in pretty high demand.” The trackers, both trained in search and rescue as well, sometimes deploy together as a
_áää=pí~íÉå=~åÇ=cêÉÇ=o~åÇäÉ=éê~ÅíáÅÉ=ïáíÜ=hJV=jçêÖ~å=çå=Üáë=ÄáíÉ=ïçêâI=ïÜáÅÜ=áë=~=é~êí=çÑ=Üáë=Ç~áäó=~ééêÉÜÉåëáçå=íê~áåáåÖK=o~åÇäÉ=ïÉ~êë=~=ÄáíÉ=ëäÉÉîÉI ïÜáäÉ=jçêÖ~å=êÉ~Åíë=íç=pí~íÉåÛë=Åçãã~åÇK team. “Fred and I work well as a team,” said Staten. “Depending on circumstances, sometimes we’ll take both dogs, deploy one and have one in reserve.” Some days, the handlers and their K-9s will visit local schools and present a program. “We have fun with them,” said Randle. “We don’t use our dogs to be aggressive or to put fear in kids. We want them to know that the dogs can protect you, they can save you and they can find you.” Staten added, “It’s fun. I like to see the look on the kids’ faces when I have Morgan jump up in the air. He can be a ham.” The dogs also get some time for play. “When I take his collar off, he understands that he’s on play time,” said Staten. “My dog stays with me 24-seven. He sleeps by my bed. I feel very comfortable with him around my family. He’ll take on a different personality when he’s not working, but when I put the collar on, he’s all busi-
ness. He knows it’s time to go to work.” The handlers make time to train their dogs, but they also make socializing a priority. “They require a lot of time, and it’s something that you have to be willing to do, something that you want to do,” said Randle. “If you’re a dog lover and you love the job, they’re the best thing. They are the next thing to your kids. They are just that close. You’ve got to have the pride and the dedication to operate one of these dogs, because if you don’t, when you go out in public, it will show.” Sheriff Ricky Banks has always supported and encouraged having K-9 units at the department. In fact, he was the first to acquire a dog; he was the handler of a black Lab named Zulu in the 1980s. Since then, the department has steadily had a K-9 officer and handler. “He supports it 100 percent, because he understands the need for it,” said Staten. These are the Leflore
County Sheriff’s Department K-9s, along with their breed, years of service and handler: n wìäì, a black Lab, 1982-85, Sheriff Ricky Banks n `äáÑÑ, German shepherd, 1991-92, Buster Brown n lëÅ~ê, Belgian Malinois, 2008-10, Jason Cook and Donald Radford n kÉêç, Belgian Malinois, 2011-13, Donald Radford n içåòç, 2012-17, Dutch shepherd, Fred Randle n bäò~, 2014-now, German shepherd, Fred Randle n jçêÖ~å, 2013-now, Belgian Malinois, Scott Stewart and Bill Staten The dogs are a vital part of the department and considered law enforcement officers just like their human colleagues. “I’d do anything for her, and she’d do anything for me,” said Randle. Staten said, “He is my partner, and I trust him with my life, because he would give his life to protect me.” n
JJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJ
“They require a lot of time, and it’s something that you have to be willing to do, something that you want to do. If you’re a dog lover and you love the job, they’re the best thing. They are the next thing to your kids. They are just that close. ” Fred Randle
JJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJ
PageNN Greenwood Commonwealth / Wednesday, November 1, 2017 cfopq=obpmlkabop =======================================================================================================================================================================
Chief Ray Moore
Assistant Chief Marvin Hammond
Shift Sergeant Antoine Anderson
Shift Lieutenant L.V. Archie
Detective Lieutenant Jeri Bankston
Court Clerk Felicia Bedell
Dispatcher Yvette Bishop
Code Enforcement William Blake
Shift Lieutenant Patricia Bounds
Captain William Burleson
Detective Sergeant Jeffery Byars
Patrolman Cody Chamblee
Dispatcher Farrah Chandler
Patrolman Darnell Christman
Sergeant Melvin Cook
Records Clerk Mavis Cosper
Sergeant Terrence Craft
Dispatcher Claudette Curry
Patrolman Greg Fernandez
Patrolman Jerry Foster
Patrol Officer Tawana Friend
Sergeant Rolando Galvin
Detective Sergeant Edgar Givson
Detective Sergeant Byron Granderson
Patrolman Artiko Greer
Records Clerk Annette Griffin
Shift Sergeant Amos Hayes
Patrolman Kevin Hayes
Patrolman Kenneth Hill
Deputy Court Clerk Mable Hopkins
Shift Lieutenant Michael Hoskins
Captain Michael Johnson
Patrolman Robert Johnson
Chaplain Jim Kelly
Detective James Layton
Shift Captain Talisha Leach
Lieutenant Curtis Lee
Dispatcher Mary Lyons
Sergeant Lonnie Magee
Patrolman Michael March
Patrolman Bryan May
Patrol Officer Keiandria McClee
PageNO Greenwood Commonwealth / Wednesday, November 1, 2017 cfopq=obpmlkabop =======================================================================================================================================================================
Patrolman Scottie Montgomery
Patrolman Mark Mulconrey
Patrolman Steve Noble
Lieutenant Webster Nuel
Captain Byron O’Bryant
Shift Lieutenant Lenard Paige
Animal Control Keith Peeples
Shift Sergeant Don Perry Rice
Patrol Officer Nastacia Rice
Shift Sergeant Erica Scott
Sergeant Serafin Simon
Dispatcher Irene Stancil
Animal Control Fitzgerald Stevenson
Records Clerk Sheletha Stokes
Captain T.J. Tackett
Patrolman Clarence Tolbert
Patrolman Banks Tucker
Secretary Joyce Turner
Patrolman Zach Underwood
Dispatcher Colby Watson
Patrolman Michael White
Leflore County Deputy Director Dorothy C. Ivory
Carroll County Director Gayle Beard
klq=mf`qroba aáëé~íÅÜÉê=`~äãÉáëÜ~=`~äÇïÉääI=aáëé~íÅÜÉê=pÜ~êåáÅÉ=eáÄÄäÉêI=aáëé~íÅÜÉê=gçåáÅá~=jççêÉI m~íêçä=lÑÑáÅÉê=tÜáíåÉó=píÉîÉåëçå=~åÇ=m~íêçäã~å=gÉêêó=táääá~ãë
Dispatcher Teveeta Whitehead
Leflore County Coroner Debra Sanders
Leflore County Assistant Coroner Will Gnemi
Leflore County Assistant Coroner Bill Lord
Carroll County Coroner Mark Stiles
Leflore County Director Fred Randle
PageNP Greenwood Commonwealth / Wednesday, November 1, 2017 cfopq=obpmlkabop =======================================================================================================================================================================
Chief Marcus Banks
Captain Sean Jones
Captain Christopher Glass
Battalion Chief Tony Brown
Sergeant Charles Montgomery
Firefighter Hunter Flannagan
Lieutenant Gavin Young
Firefighter Marcus Ramsey
Firefighter Leonard Young
Lieutenant Jarvis Davis
Lieutenant Alfred King Jr.
Firefighter Raymond Banks
Sergeant Christopher Jones
Captain Detrick Munford
Firefighter Derry Skinner
Captain Lavar Bolden
Sergeant Johnny Langdon Jr.
Captain Maurice Ellis
Firefighter Xavaier Brister
Captain Marvin Turner
Captain Jamie Simon
Lieutenant Eddie Brookins
Captain Shun Byrd
Firefighter Curtis Elliott
Firefighter Julian Beamon
Captain Charles Cooley
Firefighter Kalcy Hill
Firefighter Cleother Crain
Firefighter Cary Hayes
Sergeant Cedric Martin
Sergeant Michael Hynes Jr.
Captain Jamoni Jennings
Captain Scott Hemphill
Captain Jason Wallace
Firefighter Marquivious Bankhead
klq=mf`qroba _~íí~äáçå= `ÜáÉÑ= táääá~ã= qÜçãéëçåX= ^ëëáëí~åí= `ÜáÉÑ= gçÜå= iÉïáëX= qê~áåáåÖ `ÜáÉÑ= j~êíêÉääáë= jÅaçïÉääX= cáêÉÑáÖÜíÉêë= oçååáÉ= m~óåÉI= qÉãÉêáçìë= péáîÉóI eçï~êÇ=içïÉI=`Üêáëíá~å=táääá~ãë=~åÇ=táääáÉ=jÅháååÉó
Battalion Chief Willie Coker
Firefighter Leroy Purnell
Sergeant Desmond Jones
Recruit Khalil Brisco
PageNQ Greenwood Commonwealth / Wednesday, November 1, 2017 cfopq=obpmlkabop =======================================================================================================================================================================
Sheriff Ricky Banks
Undersheriff Ken Spencer
Captain Robert Quinn
Deputy Colby Trotter
Deputy Coy Lee Keys
Deputy Eddie Cates
Deputy James Payne
Deputy Kendrick Foreman
Deputy Michael Baldwin
Deputy Perell Westbrook
Deputy Randall Darling
Deputy Rodney Spencer
Deputy Ted Washington
Deputy Travis Summers
klq=mf`qroba aÉéìíó= = iÉå= tççÇÉå= ~åÇ= aÉéìíó= `çÇó s~åä~åÇáåÖÜ~ã
Dispatcher Moranda Randle
Investigator Bill Staten
Investigator Jim Hammer
Sergeant Danny Henry
Sergeant Fred Randle
fíí~=_Éå~W=cêçã=äÉÑíI=a~îÉ=hÉääóI=açìÖ=`ä~êâI=gKeK=jìëÉI=g~ëçå=açóäÉI=_êáÅÉ=cìäÖÜ~ãI oÉÖÖáÉ=cêÉÉã~åI=`äáåíçå=mçïÉääI=^åÇêÉï=e~êêáëI=j~êÅìë=_~åâÜÉ~Ç=~åÇ=d~îáå=vçìåÖX åçí=éáÅíìêÉÇI=sçåòÉää=pÉäÑI=bìÖÉåÉ=a~îáëI=qÉêê~åÅÉ=jáääÉêI=açå~äÇ=cìäÖÜ~ãI=bäÇêáÅâ=`ä~óI jáåíÉê=`áíóW=cêçã=äÉÑíI=aÉÉ=píÉÉÇI=^Çêá~å=mÉ~ÅçÅâI=`çäÄó=qêçííÉêI=gçÜå=pãáíÜ=~åÇ=_ìÇÇó aÉ~íçåX=åçí=éáÅíìêÉÇI=nìÉåíáå=píìÄÄëK oçÄÉêí=mÉêêóã~åI=t~äíÉê=m~êâÉêI=lÅí~òáÉå=cêÉÉã~å=~åÇ=m~ìä=e~äÉóK
jçåÉóW=cêçã=äÉÑíI=qêÉó=hÉääóI=gçÇó=^Åçëí~I=o~åÇó=eìåíI=hÉáíÜ=eçäãÉëI=`Üêáë=hÉääóI=`Üêáë jçêÖ~å=`áíóW=cêçã=äÉÑíI=_ìêí=oçÄÉêëçåI=hÉîáå=jìÉääÉêI=`ìêí=gçääóI=tÜáíåÉó=jìÉääÉêI=hÉååó t~äâÉêI= `Üêáë= aÉåäÉóI= `Üêáë= `çäÉã~åI= `çÇó= _É~ãI= `çÇó= eçêåI= ^ìëíáå= aÉåäÉóI= w~ÅÜ jìÉääÉêI=hÉååÉíÜ=jìÉääÉê=~åÇ=hÉåÇ~ää=jìÉääÉêX=åçí=éáÅíìêÉÇI=hÉîáå=eáäíçåI=a~ååó=j~êíáåI råÇÉêïççÇI=táääá~ã=qìÅâÉêI=oçÄ=dê~åíÜ~ã=~åÇ=sáêÖáä=pÅ~ääáçåX=åçí=éáÅíìêÉÇI=t~óåÉ=mçÉI= oçÄÉêí=j~êíáåI=gçëÜ=`ä~êâI=táääáÉ=`K=páãë=~åÇ=pí~êëâó=j~êíáåK u~îáÉê=eìÇëçåI=_~åâë=qìÅâÉêI=gáã=eçääóI=hÉáíÜ=d~åíI=qÉêêó=oçÄÉêíë=~åÇ=k~íÜ~å=_çëÜÉêëK klq=mf`qroba mÜáääáéëíçåW _áääó=rëëÉêóI=eçï~êÇ=eçääáã~åI=`~ëÉó=^äÇÉêã~å=~åÇ=g~ÅâáÉ=páãë páÇçåW=gÉêêó=pãáíÜ=~åÇ=táääáÉ=kÉ~ä
PageNR Greenwood Commonwealth / Wednesday, November 1, 2017 cfopq=obpmlkabop =======================================================================================================================================================================
Sheriff Clint Walker
Chief Deputy Adam Eubanks
Deputy Adam Jennings
Deputy Art Hicks
Deputy Bobby Mullen
Deputy Claude Foreman
Deputy Grant Gammill
Deputy Jamie Taylor
Deputy Jeremy McDaniels
Deputy Johnny Marlow
Deputy Keith Rammage
Deputy Kyle Adams
Deputy Mark Beck
Deputy Robert Anderson
Deputy Roshaun Daniels
Deputy Shelia Peeples
Deputy Therrell Turner
Deputy Thomas Johnson
Deputy Trinity Hoover
_É~í=QW=a~îáÇ=oçëë
`~êêçääíçåLkçêíÜ=`~êêçääíçåW=cêçã=äÉÑíI=cáêÉã~å=_çÄÄó=_~êåÉííI=cáêÉã~å=gçÉä=táääá~ãëI=`~éí~áå=oó~å=eçéâáåëI=`~éí~áå=qçã=eÉ~êåI=`~éí~áå=m~íêáÅâ jçåíÖçãÉêóI=aÉéìíó=cáêÉ=`ÜáÉÑ=cê~åâ=qêìáííI=ëí~íÉ=pÉåK=ióÇá~=`Ü~ëë~åáçäI=cáêÉ=`ÜáÉÑ=mÜáä=`çëíáäçïI=^ëëáëí~åí=cáêÉ=`ÜáÉÑ=gáããó=içêÇI=cáêÉ `ççêÇáå~íçê=pÅçíí=jçåíÖçãÉêóI=cáêÉã~å=d~åÉë=_~åâëíçå=Eçå=Å~íï~äâFI=`~éí~áå=hóäÉ=^Ç~ãëI=cáêÉã~å=`Üêáë=_ê~åëçåI=cáêÉã~å=hÉåÇ~ää=açïåë=Eçå íêìÅâ=ëíÉéëFI=cáêÉã~å=^äÉñ=dáääÉëéáÉX=åçí=éáÅíìêÉÇI=cáêÉã~å=bêáÅ=eçéâáåë=~åÇ=cáêÉã~å=dÉçêÖÉ=dáääÉëéáÉK klq=mf`qroba dê~îÉä=eáääJ_ä~Åâ=e~ïâW=gÉêÉãó=g~ìÇçåX=`I=gI=oçÄÉêíëçåI=g~ó=j~ñÉóI=a~åáÉä=`çìåíëI=sáêÖáä=pÅ~ääáçåI=aìëí~å=cäÉãáåÖI=q~ëÜ~=~åÇ=jáâÉ=`çêåáëÜ== jçìåí=máëÖ~ÜW=d~êó=jìåÅÜÉêI=bíÜ~å=e~ÇÇçåI=aÉ~å=_ä~âÉäÉóI=jáÅÜÉäÉ=jìåÅÜÉêI=_ìÄÄ~=q~ååÉêI=i~êêó=`~êîÉêI=o~åÇ~ää=`ä~êâI=`çÇó=mìÖÜI=gçëÜ=píÉï~êíI=jáÅÜ~Éä=e~ÇÇçåI=pÅçíí=_ÉÅâI gçÜå=_ÉÅâI=ióåå=e~äÉóI=hÉååó=gçåÉëI=tÉåÇÉää=dçëëI=gçÜå=e~ÇÇçåI=_êççâ=jÅ`êçêóI=oìëíó=`~êéÉåíÉê= `~äî~êóJeáÅâçêó=dêçîÉW `ÜáÉÑ=^åÇó=sáåáåÖI=cáêÉÑáÖÜíÉê=`Üáé=a~îáëI=bÇï~êÇ=dçëëI=^ëëáëí~åí=`ÜáÉÑ=qáã=`~ëëáÇó=~åÇ=cáêÉÑáÖÜíÉê=^êí=_ä~âÉ
PageNS Greenwood Commonwealth / Wednesday, November 1, 2017 cfopq=obpmlkabop =======================================================================================================================================================================