The Burke County Sheriff’s Office has a suspect in custody for a robbery that led to a car chase. On Thursday at 9:26 A.M. Burke county deputies were sent to St. Mary’s Catholic Church on the 3200 block of Stoney Bluff Road in response to a robbery.
Burke Sheriff Alfonzo Williams received the 2018 “Medal of Merit” from the National Sheriff’s Association, who commended him on his outstanding leadership and contributions to not just Burke County but the entire CSRA.
Burke County Sheriff Alfonzo Williams has received the National Sheriff’s Association’s 2018 “Medal of Merit.”
The award acknowledges outstanding leadership and contributions to the community, according to a news release from the sheriff’s office. The release states that Burke County has seen more than a 50 percent reduction in crimes of violence and on property since Williams took office in 2017. The solvency rate of crimes has also more than tripled, according to the release.
Williams community related initiatives and programs that work with the youth in Burke County as also noted in the release.
“You have our respect and admiration for all of your accomplishments,” said Jonathan F. Thompson, the organization’s executive director in the release.
The Burke County Sheriff’s Office will soon be trained to administer a drug used to prevent death in an opioid overdose, joining other Augusta-area agencies trying to combat this national epidemic.
Twenty-eight members of the sheriff’s office, along with others working within public safety and interested community members, began training last month to administer the nasal spray Narcan.
In 2016, the five states with the highest rates of death from drug overdoses were West Virginia (52.0 per 100,000), Ohio (39.1 per 100,000), New Hampshire (39.0 per 100,000), Pennsylvania (37.9 per 100,000) and Kentucky (33.5 per 100,000), according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Deaths in Georgia reached 8.8 per 100,000 in 2016, and Chief Deputy Lewis Blanchard said the office’s main goal is to stay ahead of the national epidemic. The decision came after a recent incident in which Burke County deputies were the first to arrive at a call about a suspicious person, possibly suffering from an overdose.
“So far that has not been a major problem in our county, but we just want to be ahead of the curve as much as possible,” Blanchard said.
A man is behind bars after a chase ensued with the Burke County Sheriff's Office. A woman cleaning around gravestones at St. Mary's Catholic Church on Stoney Bluff Road says a man approached her asking for directions just minutes before she saw him running off with her purse from her car. She used her cellphone in her pocket to call deputies to the church.
Burke County Sheriff
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