2021 Medal of Valor Award Winner: Deputy John Glass, Shelby County Sheriff’s Office

On September 18, 2019 Deputies with eh Fugitive Apprehension Team and the Multi-Agency Gang Unit were serving a criminal attempt first degree murder warrant at 1230 Haven Circle in Memphis which was a small single wide trailer home in a South Memphis trailer park. Deputies received information from a resident on the scene that the wanted subject was hiding inside the trailer. After Deputies knocked and announced their presence and attempted to talk the wanted subject out of the trailer with negative results, Deputies Joshua Fox, John Glass, Jeffery Jensen, Francisco Araujo, and MPD K-9 Officer Nathan Newman entered the trailer to search for the wanted suspect while Deputies William Estredge and Taylor Garrison held the front door and entry to the trailer. While searching the trailer and attempting to locate the wanted suspect, Deputy Joshua Fox attempted to move a bookcase in a bedroom that the wanted suspect was believed to be hiding behind when the wanted suspect began shooting at Deputies from behind the bookcase and shot Deputy Joshua Fox multiple times. Deputies Fox, Glass, Araujo and Jensen returned fire striking the wanted suspect multiple times. During the mist of the shooting, Deputy Jensen was attacked by the MPD K-9 that was inside the residence and received several viscous bite wounds.

After realizing that Deputy Fox had been struck by gunfire and Deputy Jensen had been bitten by the dog, Deputy Glass called for a cease fire. In that moment, Deputies Glass and Araujo evacuated Deputies Fox and Jensen out of the room. Once Deputies Fox and Jensen had been removed from the trailer and out of the line of fire, Deputy Glass, thinking quickly in an extremely stressful situation and putting the safety and well-being of his fellow officers above his own, reentered the trailer and the room where the suspect was located. The suspect was still alive and still holding the pistol in his hand, was ordered by Deputy Glass to drop the weapon at which time the suspect raised and pointed the pistol at Deputy Glass who then fired several rounds at the suspect and striking the suspect eliminating the threat. Deputy Glass showed extraordinary courage in the face of a very violent and perilous situation by reentering that room and reencountering the suspect given the personal hazards, danger, and voluntary risk of his own life to safeguard the loves of his fellow officers and citizens.