Tommy Fox
Lexington County Sheriff's Department

Tommy was my mentor. When I started with the Sheriff's Department we didn't have FTO's, and the Academy had just started, but wasn't mandatory to attend. Tommy took me under his wing and taught me a lot about being a Deputy Sheriff. When you're young and first starting in Law Enforcement there aren't enough hours in the day to Police. Tommy and I worked opposite shifts, but when he was on the Midnights and I was on the second I would ride with him after I got off, sometimes for the whole shift. He showed me Lexington County and I don't think that there was a road that he didn't know. Before we got the 911 system, that required every home and business to have a address, complainants would call, tell you to go to Joe's old barn turn right at the fifth fence post and then turn left, etc. I sure didn't know what they were talking about, but Tommy did.

The night that Tommy was killed I had been with him for about two hours. We were riding down the road and for some reason I decided that I was going home early. I told Tommy to take me back to Sheriff's Office that I was going and would see him tomorrow. During this time the City of Batesburg had received numerous calls to a night spot called the "Trash Pile", that was having problems with the crowd. I went home and for some unknown reason I didn't take my uniform off and started looking at some magazines back then there wasn't any 24-hour TV station in the Columbia area. I must have been home for about two hours when I hear someone knocking on my back door. I went to the door and a friend of mine that worked for the West Columbia Police was standing there. He told me that Tommy had been shot and we needed to go to the Hospital. When we arrived it was too late; Tommy had passed away from a gunshot wound to the head. I had a feeling that night that I hope I never feel again.

After I left Tommy that night, another deputy and the Chief of the Leesville Police Dept. were called to help Batesburg with the problems at the "Trash Pile", things had gotten out of hand. There were close to 300 people around this old building and 99% were drunk. An altercation broke out and the officers tried to break it up. The suspect in this case grabbed the other deputy, and Tommy tried to get him loose. The suspect managed to get one of the officer's gun and shot Tommy six times, five of them weren't life threatening, but the one to the head was. The other Deputy managed to return fire hitting the suspect in the stomach. The suspect lived and was given a long prison term.

For many years I have always wondered if I had stayed with Tommy could I have done something to keep Tommy from losing his life, or maybe it could have been me shot and not Tommy.

Tommy Fox was a GREAT MAN!!!!!!

         


Trooper First Class Ben Strickland
S. C. Highway Patrol

Ben was the kind of guy that you would want as a friend, neighbor and co-worker. I met Ben when I first came with the department. Sometimes I would work the radio when the dispatcher was off, and Ben would stop by the office and get some coffee and I would also see him on the road. He would stop and we would talk awhile and then go back to work. I loved to listen to stories that he told. Ben was a great help when you needed to know something about the traffic laws.

The last time that I saw Ben alive, I was working in Narcotics headed to Aiken County on I-20. I came up on some "lovely ladies" laying in the grass in the median. Two of them had on bathing suits, some sight. I had just picked up the mike to call the office about the women when I met Ben coming the opposite way. I knew that he would stop, so I turned around and went back to help him. These ladies were out of it. Ben took two and I took the third one and off to the County Jail we went.

Sometime after that Ben was working the Midnight shift on I-20. He had stopped a vehicle for DUI and had arrested the driver and placed him in his patrol car. The passenger was lying with his head on the window, Ben opened the door and tried to wake him, but the suspect wouldn't wake up. Ben went back to his vehicle and called for a wrecker and started writing the traffic tickets on the driver. Unknowing to Ben the passenger wasn't pasted out, but was faking it, and also they had broken into a business in Aiken County and the stolen items were in the trunk of the car. The passenger, Tommy Queen Thompson, managed to get out of the vehicle and come down the side of Ben's vehicle, around the back up too the drivers side. Thompson had a sawed-off shotgun with him, and he shot Ben point blank. Ben managed to get some rolls off, but didn't hit any of the suspects, and also called for help. The driver of the wrecker was the first person there, but it was too late, Ben was gone.

I got a call that morning that a trooper had been shot and the suspects had jumped and run out close to the Airport. Cayce Police had spotted the vehicle and gave chase. I asked who it was but the dispatcher didn't know. Not long after I got there one of the suspects came out of the woods, the one that had been arrested. He still had the handcuffs on. He told us that he wasn't going to leave, but Thompson had threaten to kill him too if he didn't go. I left this area and went to place were the Bloodhounds had picked up a trail. It was getting close to the time of morning when people were leaving for work. We set up checkpoints on all the main road and checked all vehicles coming and going. A young white male came up to the checkpoint that I was at and I knew that he looked familiar, I arrested him on a drug charge sometime back. Just as I got up to the window the driver jumped out of the car, dressed only in his underwear and yelled to me that the suspect was in the back floorboard of his car. I managed to get the door open and there Thompson was. I removed him from the vehicle and under him was the shotgun. The victim told us that he had broken into his parents' house and was hiding there while we searched the area. Thompson though that he could get out by taking a hostage, but he didn't get a chance to use him.

Tommy Queen Thompson is doing life, and every time he comes up for Parole I have made it a point to be there to do everything I can to keep him locked up. I have also planned to keep going, even though I'm retired now.

   
Thanks to Fred Atkinson for the pictures.

May 31, 2012 38 years after Trooper Strickland was killed in the line of duty the section of Interstate 20 that the incident happened at was named in his honor. Long over due.

Doug Jones
Lexington County Sheriff's Department

Doug was a friend of mine that I worked with for many years. Doug had transferred to the Warrant Division from the Road. If you are, or ever have been in law enforcement, you know what happens when you have a storm of some kind, all the alarms in the your area goes off. One afternoon a large thunderstorm came through Lexington County. This storm dropped a lot of water in no time. An alarm at a business at I-20 and US #1 went off. The call was given to the area deputy, but Doug was close by on his way home and advised that he would take it.

The next day Doug didn't show up for work. I don't know what the higher-ups did when he didn't show and that has always concerned me, but the people at the location of the alarm called and stated that in a drainage pond next to their building you could see part of a Blue Light showing. This was a new business that had just been finished and the contractor had built a small pond so that water would drain off during construction. The small pond was drained and that is when they found Doug. It appears that he drove around the building to check it, and didn't realize that the drainage pond was there. I'm sure that with all the rain we had at one time the whole area looked like one solid piece of ground covered in water. Doug couldn't swim, but you could see on one side of the drainage pond Doug's boot prints where he tried to climb out, but the clay wouldn't give him any traction.

One of worst things about this is that Doug's wife had passed away sometime before he did, which left his children parentless

         


Trooper First Mark Coates
S. C. Highway Patrol

Mark was a paramedic in Lexington County before he went with the Patrol. Before I took over the Investigative Divisions I was a Road Lieutenant. On Friday and Saturday nights when the "Gun & Knife Clubs" would meet, Mark and I would end up at the incident location together. We became good friends, the only bad time that we had was when I pulled him on water skis and he broke his leg. He talked to me about joining the Patrol. I told him about my Grandfather being on the Patrol and that he was the reason that I got in to Law Enforcement and I thought it was a good idea. When Mark graduated from Patrol School he was stationed in Newberry County. He did a great job while he was there and his hard work got him a place on the ACE Team. This team worked all over the state, mostly on the Interstates, doing drug interdiction. Mark was working one night on I-95 down on the South Carolina - Georgia border. He had stopped a vehicle and during the stop he suspected that the person had drugs. During the search the suspect hit Mark knocking him off balance, drew a pistol and started firing. Mark was wearing his vest, but one of the shots entered under his armpit and went into his heart. Mark was able to return fire, hitting the suspect several times. Of course the suspect lives and Mark died. The suspect was arrested, tried and escaped the Death Penalty. He is doing Life...