The men and women of law enforcement are just like the rest of us when they get ready to go to work. Everyone has his or her own routine.
Unlike the rest of us, before they walk out the door, they put on a badge and a gun to prepare them for a day that will see them run to things from which most people would run away. Their challenges can range from putting a desperate criminal in jail to comforting a victim.
But, like the rest of us, they never expect the things they see and we only hear about will happen to them.
At least Jim Burrell didn’t when he left his home last Wednesday morning on the way to get his oil changed in his patrol vehicle.
“I never thought this would happen,” he said when he finished telling his story last Friday.
Burrell is a 13-year-veteran of the Fannin County Sheriff’s Office. He currently serves as a School Resource Officer.
Last Wednesday he was officially off duty, on an emergency leave expecting to sit with his dad in a Dalton hospital. But his dad had taken an unexpected turn for the better and was coming home that day.
Burrell decided to use this change of plans, which gave him some extra waiting time, to get his vehicle serviced that morning.
He left the family home just inside the county line in Gilmer County and headed to Blue Ridge, only about eight minutes away.
About 7:15 a.m. and halfway to the county garage on Aska Road he learned his wife had called 911. She and their 13-year-old son were still at home. He turned around and headed home. It wasn’t long before he figured out someone was trying to break into their house. The intruder had gone to the front door and then to a side door, kicking it and demanding to be let inside. He failed.
Burrell would be the first law enforcement officer on the scene.
He remembered when turning onto his own driveway his training kicked in. He remembered thinking, “This is a call. I’ve gotta catch this guy.”
When he pulled up, he saw a pickup truck that didn’t belong there sitting next to his wife’s car.
His dogs were barking from their pen, pointing him in the direction of the woods behind the house. Darkness had not yet left the early morning hours and a heavy canopy of trees covered the area.
Racing down a steep embankment, one he would normally walk around, Burrell soon had the intruder in his sights — literally.
Burrell’s training was likely the only thing that saved the intruder’s life as the next seconds raced by.
Burrell said he ordered the man, later identified as Rastis Bradley Ledford, to put up his hands, which he did at first.
But Ledford was fidgeting, rambling, and saying he was at the house to do work. Then he suddenly began to lower his hands, moving them toward his waist. Burrell again commanded him to raise his hands, and it was in this split second anything could have happened.
But Burrell kept a level head thanks to his training. And thanks to the new sights that were recently purchased for all the deputy sheriff’s pistols, he could see Ledford was slowly doing what he was told. His hands were starting to go back up.
Ledford was ordered to the ground, but as Burrell began putting handcuffs on him, Ledford again tried to get to his waist. Burrell grabbed Ledford’s arm and quickly brought him under control. Hooked to the suspect’s belt were a knife and empty gun holster.
When Burrell brought Ledford out of the woods, a Gilmer County deputy had arrived and Fannin County Deputy Sheriff Charles Yannis was close behind.
Back at the truck, the gun Ledford had been carrying was found. It had apparently dropped out of his holster and fallen onto the floor when Ledford got out of the truck.
Also in the truck were a shotgun, three jars filled with marijuana, a marijuana pipe and a pipe that had been used for smoking methamphetamine with residue still present.
Burrell talked about the events last Friday.
“It was a blessing in disguise” that his dad was coming home, he said. That left Burrell at home instead of in Dalton.
He talked about his training, referring to Sheriff Dane Kirby, Chief Deputy Keith Bosen and Captain Justin Turner. “They all have a really good training program that helped me keep a level head,” Burrell said. “That allowed me to effectively go after him.
“I didn’t wake up that morning expecting to have to do that. It was the first time I’ve ever had to go to my own house. I never thought this would happen,” Burrell said.
But he was thankful for the outcome. “With all the possibilities of how this could have worked out, this is the best.”
Only minutes before Ledford tried to break into the Burrells’ home, he had tried to break into another home in the secluded neighborhood. The owner had used a gun to scare him off and had called 911. That situation could have also turned out differently.
Ledford, 72, of 347 Allen Road, Cherry Log, was taken into custody by Gilmer County Deputy Sheriff David Camp and is charged with four felonies; two counts of Criminal Attempt to Commit a Crime, Possession of a Firearm or Knife During Commission of a Crime, and Possession of Marijuana with Intent to Distribute, and five misdemeanors; two counts of Criminal Trespass, Open Container in Vehicle, Driving Under the Influence of Alcohol, anhd Willful Obstruction of Law Enforcement Officers. Ledford was still held in the Gilmer County Detention Center Friday under a $16,500 bond.
By Glenn Harbison, News-Observer Publisher