Sad news today out of Okaloosa County as a sheriff’s deputy by the name of Bill Myers was shot dead outside of a lawyer’s office during an exchange of gunfire. The 64-year-old officer had retired, but returned to the job to earn money to help send his granddaughter to Walt Disney World.
This image has started being passed around social media in memory of Bill Myers,
A GoFundMe page has already been created to help out the family: https://www.gofundme.com/yb4rty28
The Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office has reached out to me and confirmed the Go Fund Me page is legit and is credible in helping Bill Myers’ family. They also thank everyone for their support.
The full story via ABC News:
A gunman fatally shot a sheriff’s deputy outside a lawyer’s office Tuesday and then barricaded himself inside a motel, where he exchanged gunfire with other deputies and was killed, authorities said.
Joel Dixon Smith, 33, was being served a domestic violence restraining order at the lawyer’s office and was supposed to be turning over his guns to Okaloosa County Deputy Bill Myers, 64, when he pulled out a concealed weapon and shot the deputy multiple times in the back of the head and back, authorities said.
Sheriff Larry Ashley called Smith “a sick little coward.”
Smith, a postal worker, fled in his vehicle, heading to a Comfort Suites about 10 miles away in Niceville, where he had previously booked a room. He barricaded himself inside and deputies fired tear gas into his room. He charged out firing and was shot by deputies, Ashley said.
No one else was hurt.
Smith had been arrested in 2008 for domestic battery, Ashley said, but had no other details. The restraining order was meant to protect Smith’s wife.
Smith was a rural carrier for the Postal Service, beginning in Niceville in 2013, the agency said in a brief statement.
Annie Allen works at an awning business next to the law firm. Allen said she and her boss were starting their day when six to eight gunshots rang out.
“We heard ‘pop, pop, pop,'” she said.
Allen called 911, and her boss, store owner David Wray, went to check things out.
Wray said he initially thought there had been a robbery at a nearby Dollar General store. He spotted Myers’ patrol car and ran over with the intention to tell a deputy about the possible robbery but instead saw a wounded Myers.
Wray said he was stooped over Myers when a nicely dressed man walked out of the law office. Wray said he asked the man if anyone had called 911, but the man just continued to his truck. That’s when another woman screamed that the man was the shooter.
“It was like I was in a movie,” Wray said. “I just couldn’t believe any of it.”
Wray said he used his phone to take photos of the fleeing truck. He said he then got into his own vehicle and tried to follow.
“I thought I’d chase him, but there was a lot of traffic,” Wray said. “I’m not James Bond. I didn’t want to get anybody hurt, so I went back.”
At the scene of the shooting, Wray said he and another man tried to talk to the deputy, but he didn’t reply.
“It was the saddest thing I’d ever seen,” Wray said. “I cradled his head for a while. He was bleeding profusely.”
Allen said she also saw the sheriff’s deputy on the ground moments later.
“When I realized it was an officer that he shot, that’s when it really hit me how dangerous it was,” she said.
A Comfort Suites guest, David Bump of Ozark, Alabama, said he awoke Tuesday to deputies pounding at his room.
“I opened the door and they had their guns drawn,” he said.
Bump said officers took him and other guests across the street, where they spent hours watching the standoff.
“When they brought the guy out, he was on a gurney with his face covered,” said Bump, who was working in the area as part of a construction crew.
He sat in the parking lot later, watching investigators enter and exit the hotel.
“They just now let me go back in and get my cellphone and cigarettes,” he said.
Deputy Myers was white. Smith listed himself as Native American on one voter registration and white on a more recent one.
Please say a prayer tonight for the Myers’ family and all those that knew Deputy Bill Myers.
Join the “I’m So Disney…” group on Facebook to discuss this and many other Disney things with anyone and everyone.
[Image via Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office]
Someone get me in contact with the family.
You can contact the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office at 850-651-7400 and ask to speak with Capt. Ken LaPee. He is working with the family during this time of tragedy.
Deputy Myers was a good man.he was always fair, kind and generous. Our community will miss him.
just to be clear. This coward shot him in the back