Two Deputies Killed Near Gun Barrell City

[kepdawg]

Another one injured!

[kaorder1999]

horrible...Henderson County Deputies....suspect was shot also and is in route to hospital

[burnet44]

Two Henderson County sheriff's deputies were shot and killed, and a third wounded, Thursday afternoon after responding to a domestic disturbance call in the Payne Springs area. The shooter, Randall Wayne Mays, of Eustace was taken into custody and transported to a Tyler hospital with injuries sustained in the incident. Officials continue to investigate. No further details are available at this time.

[Phil C]

This is really sad news. :(

[3afan]

Originally posted by burnet44
Two Henderson County sheriff's deputies were shot and killed, and a third wounded, Thursday afternoon after responding to a domestic disturbance call in the Payne Springs area. The shooter, Randall Wayne Mays, of Eustace was taken into custody and transported to a Tyler hospital with injuries sustained in the incident. Officials continue to investigate. No further details are available at this time.

saw that on the news last night, really didnt catch alot of details .... but its really terrible

if you see a law officer today and you can, shake his/her hand --- I do it often

[Phantom Stang]

Originally posted by burnet44
Two Henderson County sheriff's deputies were shot and killed, and a third wounded, Thursday afternoon after responding to a domestic disturbance call in the Payne Springs area. The shooter, Randall Wayne Mays, of Eustace was taken into custody and transported to a Tyler hospital with injuries sustained in the incident. Officials continue to investigate. No further details are available at this time.
Any news on the condition of the third officer?

[themsu97]

back to the post... how are the officers... few of my friends are officers and I thank them every time I see them... you ever notice that we do not have an officers appreciation month, or week, or even day? they deserve... them and firefighters put their lives on the line 24/7... I applaud them:clap:

now back to the baby thing... it does get personal if the jokes are tasteless... my son had to have 4 surgeries before he turned 1 and 2 of them took over 3 hours, and the first was when he was just 1 month old... tubes coming out of him at every angle, he was in pain but you really could not hold him... you gripe about getting "told" on but get over yourself first... I do not take anything personal because until you know me, you know nothing... but take all that for what it is worth...

[burnet44]

Two deputies die in line of duty



By Art Lawler

STAFF WRITER

PAYNE SPRINGS — It may have been the most violent day in Henderson County law enforcement history.

Two Henderson County Sheriff’s deputies, 63-year-old Paul Steven Habelt and 61-year-old Tony Price Ogburn were shot to death in a sudden flurry of gunfire Thursday afternoon in a rural area of the community.

A third deputy, Kevin Harris, 40, was shot in the leg.

Their assailant, Randall Wayne Mays, 47, was himself wounded by officers returning fire, bringing an end to the violence on Crawfish Road.

The two deputies were the first to die in the line of duty in Henderson County in 51 years, according to Sheriff’s Department public information officer Pat McWilliams.

On a day when male and female law officers took off their hats around the courthouse square to honor recently deceased longtime officers Dave Harris and Daner Stanbery, the late Harris’ own son was hours away from being seriously wounded. All three of the deputies helped honor Harris and Stanbery earlier.

Harris was out of surgery to repair a broken leg late Thursday.

Mays was being guarded at the hospital by Smith County Sheriff’s deputies, McWilliams said.

With an end to the violence came a chaotic scene of a different kind; news media from Dallas, Tyler and other areas filling the skies over rural Payne Springs, gathering footage for the six o’clock news.

On the ground, shaken law enforcement personnel from all over East Texas held on to one another. Some wept openly. Others appeared to be in shock, and still others couldn’t stop shaking their heads in disbelief and in anger. Henderson County elected officials like District Attorney Donna Bennett and County Judge David Holstein showed up to comfort the officers.

Standing in the middle of it all was Sherrie Ross, who identified herself as the sister of Mays.

“He has been in Terrell (State Hospital), Ross said. “I don’t know what kind of medication he was on, if any, but he has a mental problem,” she said. “I hope you’ll mention that.”

McWilliams told hordes of media crowded around him that “Upon arrival, he (Mays) opened first on them and caught them out in the open.”

Mays was injured by a shot in his side and one in his elbow.

How many shots were fired in the entire exchange was a question no one could answer Thursday afternoon. But officers swarmed the man’s property in search of spent casings.

The investigation was immediately turned over to the Texas Rangers and local agent Trace McDonald.

The officers were answering a domestic disturbance call, a daily or nightly chore for the department. A man and his wife had been fighting — which nearby neighbor Gerald Nicholson said was common.

“He’s (Mays ) a good shot,” Nicholson said. “He sent a bullet past my head once, just to let me know he could have me if he wanted me.”

He said the man fired three shots early on in the family disturbance but didn’t hit anybody.

“One hit my chain length fence,” Nicholson said. “So I went over and confronted him.” His wife called the Sheriff’s Department.”

Later, he said, he heard gunfire and saw one deputy fall to the ground, then another.

He ordered his seven-year-old son and his wife inside, telling them to get inside a bathtub.

Another neighbor, Russell Hicks, said he saw the man run to one side of the house.

“I heard shots down there, and then he ran to the other side of the house and I heard shots from there. Then he ran into the house...and when I saw him come out, he had blood all over him,” Hicks said. “When he got to the end of the chicken coop they told him to get down and he got down.”

Hicks said the man liked to “dress in army fatigues and used bales of hay as target practice almost every day.”http://www.athensreview.com/homepage/images_sizedimage_138101713/xl