ATLANTA — A Hall County sheriff’s deputy was shot and killed in the line of duty on Sunday night, making him the fourth fallen officer in Georgia this year.
One other officer, Sgt. Kelvin Ansari of the Savannah Police Department, was shot and killed in the line of duty.
In the other two instances, an officer died of a medical trauma during training and another died in a crash on his way to pick up an inmate.
Ansari was killed in May as he approached a robbery suspect. It happened in the city’s midtown area.
The sergeant was a 10-year veteran of the Savannah force, and before that served 21 years in the U.S. Army. At his funeral, colleagues described him as a “protector, guardian, friend, servant, leader, Christian, and a hero.”
He left behind a wife and five children, ranging in age from 6 to 26.
There have been 42 officer-involved shootings in Georgia this year.
MORE ON HALL COUNTY DEPUTY'S DEATH
In January, Deputy Joshua Ryer Jr. of the Glascock County Sheriff’s Office, in central Georgia, died en route to picking up an inmate at a regional detention center. State troopers said he failed to stop at a stop sign and was hit by another vehicle.
The sheriff’s office described Ryer, 19, as a “great young man” who was “becoming a great officer.”
"He was only with our office a short period of time but he quickly became one of our family members," a message by the sheriff’s office said. "He will truly be missed but absolutely never will be forgotten."
Fallen officers in Georgia in 2019
In Forsyth County, Deputy Spencer Englett suffered an apparent medical trauma and collapsed during training on his first day on the job. He later died.
Forsyth County Sheriff Ron Freeman said Englett, 29, had passed all medical exams before he was hired. He described him as an exceptional young man.
“One of the biggest-hearted young men that I've hired here,” Freeman said. “He is a stellar deputy who had done tremendous work here. He was selected over many of his peers to attend the law enforcement academy, and that's a testament to his work, his work ethic, and his work ability.”
Freeman added he was a small-town Georgia boy who’d once pursued a career as an amateur/professional wrestler and married a local girl in Cumming.