Douglas Co. sheriff speaks 1-on-1 on deadly shooting

Douglas County Sheriff Tony Spurlock sat down with KRDO NewsChannel 13 for a one-on-one interview on Tuesday after one of his deputies died on New Year’s Eve morning.

He started by saying he wanted to do the interview to highlight what he calls one of the biggest crisis we have in our country today.

When asked if his officer acted right, Spurlock said, “We had one officer killed and four injured but those officers were ambushed, and so my guess is they’re going to handle the calls the same way.”

Moving forward he hopes the video will help officers respond to similar mental health calls. “The key to us is how are we going to address mental health issues and how are we going to get in front of them as soon as we possibly can.”

But he admits things could have been so much worse.

“We’re thankful. We’re thankful the deputy that’s still in the hospital is recovering, and I’m thankful that the other four that were injured are recovering at home and I’m thankful we didn’t have any additional officers,” says Spurlock.

Now, the Sheriff wears Deputy Parrish’s badge on his heart. He says, “I don’t know if I’ll ever recover from losing Deputy Zach Parrish. I can’t imagine me not thinking about him anymore.”